


A.L.I.E. Is Our Friend?

by MaxiBrux



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Branching out and moving on, Canonical Character Death, Having brains and using them, Multi, mt weather
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27903598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaxiBrux/pseuds/MaxiBrux
Summary: Clarke and a small group of the delinquents separate from the main group setting up their own camp and thrive.  Over time more people join them, including the banished prince of Azgeda.  As the group grows, and more people fall from the sky, Roan advises them that it would be safer for them to set up home somewhere else, not on territory already claimed and much further away from the dangers of Mt Weather.This is an extended version of the final story from 'A Different Choice'.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Raven Reyes, Clarke Griffin/Roan
Comments: 161
Kudos: 106





	1. Earth - The Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This was one of my shorts that I have decided to expand and take it to wherever my imagination leads. It will take a few chapters for all the people to get together as a group, and I certainly don't forget about the rest of the delinquents, but they will turn up much later.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it.

Clarke Griffin wandered out to marvel at the beauty of the earth. Something that she had thought she would never get to do in real life. She itched to have some crayons and paper to try to capture the majesty of the colours of the beautiful planet, something that she had only been able to do in shades of grey while locked in her solitary cell.

Clarke looked around and realised that no one was apparently getting sick or suffering from the radiation: the air smelled cool and fresh and she hoped that the gifts of the forest would taste as good as the forest looked.

‘The forest’ Clarke thought. ‘We were supposed to be on a mountain not in the middle of a forest’ and Clarke looked around, seeing the mountains in the distance. They had settled on a hill, but it was most definitely not a mountain.

Clarke went back into the drop ship to search for supplies, ignoring the presence of the traitor Wells as he tried to get her attention. It was starting to get difficult to think with him constantly talking to her, but she would not give him the satisfaction of breaking her silence. Wells needed to learn that if one wanted to, it was simple to keep one’s mouth shut, despite how tempting it could be to talk.

“There is nothing” Clarke said with exasperation. “How could they have sent us here with nothing?”

“There’s supplies in Mt Weather” Wells answered Clarke’s question either not realising or not caring that she was talking rhetorically. “We just have to find our way to Mt Weather” Wells persisted.

Clarke looked around and thought that even if the closest mountain was Mt Weather they were an awfully long way away, and what if there were no supplies there? It was stupid to assume that none of the survivors of the initial blasts didn’t try to use what supplies they could get hold of once their food sources died out in the hope that starvation didn’t kill them before radiation poisoning. Or that the bunker was not weakened by the blasts that hit Washington DC and it could have caved in. Really pathetic to be so sure that there were things in there that were available for them to use to survive.

Clarke went outside and climbed on top of the ship grateful that boredom during her time in solitary had led to some outrageous exercise routines. She could see a lake that she could walk to for water that wasn’t too far away. Hopefully on the hike she would at least find some nuts or berries to eat to give her time to think and make a plan on what to do next.

Wells who had followed Clarke up to the top of the ship looked over at where some panels had come off. “That’s why the radio is dead” he said indicating the open area.

Clarke thought that the radio probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. She walked to the edge of the ship and looked down at all the other delinquents messing about, enjoying the sheer pleasure of being alive: except for a few who were cowering away from some very rowdy boys.

“Hey, look, it’s the Prince and Princess of the Arc” the older boy/man said with a smirk. “Hope you don’t think that you’re surveying your subjects ‘coz we’re not on the Arc anymore and we can do whatever the hell we want now!”

There were some rousing cheers from some of the other delinquents, but Clarke ignored them and chose to resonate her voice to carry over them. “If we’re the Prince and Princess it must make you the court jester” which earned a few snickers of amusement. “No, I want to ask if anyone knows where on the ship there are any supplies, even rations for our first meal?” 

This time there were grumbles of discontent and everyone shook their heads.

“Does anyone know of any tents or something for shelter?” Clarke asked.

Once more the grumbles were of discontent.

“We don’t need that” Wells tried to say. “We just need to get to Mt Weather like my father told us.”

If she didn’t hate Wells so much, Clarke would almost feel sorry for him. How could he possibly think that these people would want to do what they were told to by the Chancellor?

Clarke ignored the interruption from Wells and the expected response from the people. “I think, no, I know we were sent here to die” Clarke declared. “If the radiation doesn’t kill us, and so far it looks like it won’t, then the Council intend that we either die of dehydration, starvation or hypothermia since we have no food and no way of getting any because Mt Weather, even if it does have some after all this time, is miles away due to the fact that they landed us in the wrong place and no canteens or anything to hold water, nor anything to allow us to make shelter from the elements. Since there’s no med supplies either, not even a simple suture kit, accidents are likely to lead to slow and potentially painful death. I have no doubt that no matter what the Chancellor said about forgiving us our crimes, such an easy thing for him to offer not expecting us to be here when they come down, we are here to die one way or another.”

This time the mutterings were of a little bit of apprehension as well as discontent.

“Now you lot can carry on doing ‘whatever the hell you want’ but I’m going to find a way to really piss off the Council make and damn sure that I don’t die and I’ll give them no excuse to accidently shoot me when they do get here.”

This time Clarke earned some cheers as she climbed down from the ship and went to look for things that could come in useful: all the while ignoring Wells who was persistently trying to talk to Clarke into going with him to Mt Weather.

In the drop ship Clarke found some hollowed poles that had come loose from something. One of them had a sharp end that made Clarke think it could be used as a spear if necessary. The other wasn’t very long but … . Clarke tore the backing from one of the seats and pulled some wire from one of the walls. She had no idea what she was dismantling but she didn’t care. Using the wire, pole and seat back cover Clarke was able to fashion a very crude fishing net. Clarke then jumped on the seat to break it down so that she would have something she could use as a grill over a fire to cook the fish she caught and something to perch upon. Using her pockets to their maximum capacity Clarke stuffed everything she thought might be useful in them. Grabbing her bag and new spear, fishing pole and seat, Clarke left the drop ship site and headed to where the parachutes were to grab some of the material and the cable by which they were attached to the ship. Some fragments of metal were the nearest thing she could find to a knife or a cup, they would have to do. Pushing the fishing net, chute and rope into her bag she set off towards the lake

“Where are you going, Princess” the older boy asked; cockily sure of himself surrounded by a gang of four other boys.

“Jester, I’m off to do whatever the hell I want, which is to get to a water source so that I have something to drink. What are you going to do?” Clarke didn’t even try to sound really interested.

“Why should we let you wander off with supplies from our ship?” the Jester asked.

“If you want to be technical about it, I am entitled to one one hundredth of that ship and since I am carrying a lot less than that I would think you would be glad to let me go with no fuss” Clarke offered.

The Jester thought about it and nodded to Clarke to leave “Just know that once you leave you can’t come back” he smirked, “although it would be fun to see the Princess come crawling, begging for forgiveness and asking to join back up with us” he laughed.

Clarke just raised a haughty brow and wondered if he had taken something to cause such delusions. She had told them what she was going to do to survive and it was up to them if they wanted to follow suit or die through sheer stupidity. Clarke walked away to the sound of Wells arguing to get a party together to head for Mt Weather. Clarke snorted at such naïve idiocy.

Clarke enjoyed snacking on some berries and nuts that she found, saw some rabbits and squirrels and wondered if she could work out how to set a trap or snare. Putting it to the back of her mind as something for another day, since she knew she could live off the fruits of the forest in the short term Clarke thought about her immediate priorities.

First, Clarke knew she had to reach water, and hope that it was drinkable since she had no way of purifying it. Once Clarke reached the lake she took stock of her surroundings: she could see a stream that fed the lake that was probably better for drinking than the lake itself so she made her way closer to the stream; there were some quite large stones that could be used to make a fire pit; the forest had plenty of wood she could burn and use to make a shelter. For the time being, Clarke was golden.

Using her hands to cup some water to drink Clarke planned the next few days. Although it was warm enough at the moment, and not raining, Clarke knew that she could not rely on those conditions continuing for much longer: it was autumn and the nights would get cold and the weather would turn wet so a fire and a waterproof shelter were priorities.

It took Clarke six attempts to start the fire, which greatly ate into her ‘building a shelter’ time. She did, however, find a sharp stone that she could use for cutting, nothing fine, but it was better than nothing and she should be able to use other stones to sharpen some of the pieces of metal for finer work. The shelter was very basic with lots of holes that Clarke hoped she would have time to fill in before it started to rain. Sleeping on the ground wasn’t too comfortable, but being wrapped up in the parachute material kept Clarke warm. Clarke’s biggest worry was toileting when winter arrived.

Clarke woke to a glorious sun rise. Feeling the hope swell within her, she got up and began her ablutions using the lake as a giant freezing cold bath tub. Clarke rinsed out her previous day’s socks and underwear as best she could with just water and hung them on low lying branches to dry. Next she topped up the fire and resolved to do her best to not let it go out. More berries and nuts were next on the agenda. But she also found some wild vegetables that she knew she could grill to give more sustenance. Knowing she had enough food for two or three days meant that Clarke was happier than she had been since her father was floated. Having been in solitary for 13 months she was used to her own company, and now she had food, freedom and an ever changing vista that she could look at to her heart’s content.

After three days Clarke had a small shelter to sleep in that she was reasonably sure was waterproof in which she had attached a line to hang her washing to dry, a shelter to keep wood dry for when it rained, and a mobile shelter that she could move to cover different holes in the ground which she could use as a toilet. It offered privacy just in case any of the other delinquents came her way and some protection from the elements.

Clarke was always very careful in the lake and had only tried fishing in the stream that fed the lake. She could not swim so could only stay at the edge of the lake, but she could also see that there was some large creature that hovered just outside of her comfort zone, perhaps waiting for her courage or inattention to allow her to move into deeper water and thus be easy prey. Clarke was smarter than that and was instead working out how she could catch it instead of it catching her!

After a further two days Clarke’s morning was interrupted with the arrival of seven delinquents: four girls, one of whom couldn’t possibly have been any older than 13, and three boys, one wearing goggles, and another being the one to encourage the other two boys to float to their deaths on the dropship.

“Can we stay with you?” one of the older girls asked. “It’s awful there and we don’t feel safe.”

“Yeah, we left yesterday morning and Finn found your tracks late afternoon so we started to follow” another offered.

“We brought our bags and as much stuff as we could carry” offered the third.

“I know where to find food and I know that red water weed is medicinal” said the Asian boy.

“And I can set a snare to catch some meat” offered Floater.

“And I’ll do whatever you tell me to” offered Goggles.

Clarke thought for a moment. She was happy on her own, but a bit of company might be nice. “Okay, first unload all your stuff and we’ll start on building more shelters, but I need to know what to call you” and everyone was introduced.

Everything they brought with them was disgustingly dirty, as were they. Clarke took one set of all their clothes, stripped to her underwear and washed their clothes in the lake.

“You are all as dirty as your clothes so I’ll get this lot clean and dry for tomorrow. You can wash yourselves and the rest of your clothes in the morning. I tend to wash myself, socks and underwear every day, the rest only when they’re disgusting” Clarke said.

“That sounds reasonable” Harper said.

“How about we build one shelter for the boys, one for you three girls and Charlotte shares with me?” Clarke suggested. It would be a tight squeeze but with winter coming the extra body warmth would be welcome.

Everyone went out looking for food. Finn, the floater, set a couple of snares not too far from their camp that he said he would check before nightfall and again first thing in the morning. They collected lots of nuts that would keep and plenty of fruits and berries that Jasper said he knew how to dry so they could keep them for winter. Clarke thought that having them stay was a good idea. Now if only they can work out how to get rid of the sea monster.

The afternoon was spent building two more shelters to sleep.

“Why aren’t you sleeping in that cave?” Jasper asked. “Is it full of animals, or too small?”

“What cave?” Clarke asked looking around.

“That one” Jasper pointed to a small opening in the cliff, not too high up that Clarke would never have thought of as a cave.

“It looks too small to be called a cave” Fox said.

“Nah, you have no imagination” Jasper said. “Look at how the rock curves from the top lip. Come on guys, let’s investigate.”

Jasper’s enthusiasm was contagious and they went to examine the opening in the rock face. Finn took a lit branch to act as a torch so that they might see. Despite the encouragement, Charlotte refused to be the first one to climb in. Jasper just laughed and pulled himself through the small opening. He reached out a hand for the torch.

“Hey guys, you have got to come and see this” Jasper said.

They all pulled themselves into what was definitely a cave. It was big enough for them all to sleep in but not much else. There was no way they could have a fire, though, but even so, it might be warmer than their current camp especially if heavy rain put out their fire.

“We could plan to sleep here in winter, but try to live outside” Clarke suggested. “Maybe next spring build bigger shelters with stone platforms keeping them off the wet ground that could be general living quarters, try to work out a way to have a fire indoors?”

“As long as that cave is not some bear’s hibernation spot, sounds like a plan” Monty agreed. “We can make a door or shutter so that more of the cold is kept out.”

Plans were made to enhance their living quarters both outside and inside the cave. They realised life would be a lot better if they could get a sheet of metal to make a chimney so they could light a fire in the cave when it got really cold.

“We could try and take a panel from the dropship one night” Jasper suggested half heartedly.

“Not worth the risk if Bellamy or his cronies caught us” Harper replied.

“I know where there is a bunker that has a bed and some blankets that we could put in the cave. There’s also a chair that we can put in our living room. If we keep an eye out for others, we might find more, or we can make more over time” Finn said.

Clarke wondered why the hell Finn didn’t say anything about the bunker straight away, but it was better late than never. The bed couldn’t be moved, but they brought over the mattress, some blankets, a few items of clothing, cooking and eating utensils, some candles and a lighter, and a rickety chair and table. As far as Clarke was concerned, though, the best thing they found was a comprehensive first aid box. There were also some luxuries: delicate, faded books; some crayons, a pack of cards and a couple of board games.

“Now that we actually have something to use to drink out of, perhaps you can get the still up and running, Monty” Clarke suggested having listened to Jasper lament the loss of the one they left at the dropship site. “It would also be helpful to have some moonshine on standby to disinfect any injuries, and the first aid equipment. We’ve been lucky, so far, and we can’t expect that to continue.”


	2. Earth - The Provider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Earth provides food, water, fresh air, shelter, weapons and people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting more people to join with Clarke, but tensions also join them. Clarke has to begin to make the awful decisions that so tore her apart in canon. But at least here she has some help and understanding, and she gets to start off slow and easy.

While all the girls were bathing in the lake, Clarke noticed that none were wearing their wrist bands.

“Bellamy made us all take them off” Harper said. “He said that if the Arc thought we all died then they wouldn’t come down and try to take us over, put us back prison, stuff like that.”

“Yeah, it only took him roughing up two for everyone else to cave in” agreed Fox.

“What about Wells?” Clarke couldn’t believe that Wells would have given in; he knew what was at stake.

“He set off for Mt Weather just after you left. He still had his band on then. He hadn’t returned by the time we left” Zoe said. “What does it matter?”

“The Arc is running out of oxygen. If they don’t know that the earth is survivable then they won’t come down and they will start population reduction until eventually everyone is dead. Not quite true, I think dad said that they could sustain a steady population of around one to two hundred. Three guesses as to where the 100 to stay alive will come from if they don’t come down here” Clarke was bitter.

Bellamy Blake might just have condemned over two thousand people to death, all because he no doubt didn’t want to face the consequences of what he did to get onto the drop ship.

The rabbits they caught were welcomed, both for the tasty meat and for the fur. They knew it would take a lot of dead rabbits to produce enough fur for them all to have a warm blanket and coat, but they were hopeful that they could get better. Harper made a spear and practiced throwing it for a day before she decided she was proficient enough to try to catch a deer. Finn went to assist with tracking. Fox and Zoe made bets with Jasper and Monty as to the likelihood of success. Clarke didn’t want to appear unsupportive, but she did think that Harper was not likely to be successful on her first hunt.

They dined on deer that evening. Jasper had the mad idea of using the deer’s legs as bait to try to encourage the water serpent to come into shallower water where they could stab it with spears if they all had one. Harper, slightly drunk from her earlier success and from Monty’s moonshine, offered to make them all a spear and to teach them how to use it. Once again Clarke was sceptical as to the likely success, but once again she was proved wrong.

It was a definite air of celebration that night. The grilled water serpent tasted delicious. It might have been the alcohol, but Clarke was almost positive that she and her people were looking healthier than they had ever done before in their lives. Regular, natural food for eating, clean water for drinking and bathing, and fresh, pure air for breathing together with the regular exercise they were getting meant that their bodies were in better shape than the Arc could have thought possible. Clarke only hoped that the message from her wrist band was getting through.

While everyone else continued to sleep outside, Finn and Fox slipped off to sleep in the cave. It was inevitable that there would be some pairing off, but with such a small group, Clarke feared for the dynamics if, or when, it all went pear shaped.

With a serpent free lake, the group decided that they were going to somehow learn to swim. They agreed that once they had collected more food and set it to dry to store for winter, that afternoon would be spent in the water playing and trying to swim.

Fox got it first and Finn made sure everyone knew they were together by giving her a big congratulatory kiss in front of them, to hoots of encouragement from Harper and Zoe, and calls to ‘get a room’ from the other boys. Clarke didn’t say anything, but she really felt it was not going to end well.

They were all sat round the fire, sharing blankets across their shoulders when there was a loud crack and a streak of fire burned through the sky.

“Is that a shooting star?” asked Jasper.

“No, it’s too big” Monty replied.

“It’s a pod” said Zoe. “It looks like it’s going to land somewhere near here. We should go after it in case there are some supplies in it. We don’t want the other lot to get there first.”

No one could disagree with Zoe. They all emptied their bags and set off.

There were no supplies in the pod, but there was a person; an injured person. The guys managed to get them out of the pod and Clarke removed the helmet.

“Raven!” Finn shouted on seeing the young woman’s face.

Clarke was surprised that Finn didn’t sound as pleased as she thought he would be at seeing a friend who had risked her life to get down to earth. Clarke looked at Finn who was looking at Fox with an appalled expression on his face.

‘Oh crap’ Clarke thought. ‘This really isn’t going to end well.’ Ignoring the not so happy couple Clarke focussed on helping Raven.

“I made it, I really made it” Raven said as she regained consciousness.

“Yeah, you did” Clarke said. “How are you feeling? Take it easy, you have a nasty cut on your head that I’ll see to when we get back to camp.”

“The radio, you have to use the radio. They’re gonna float 300 people if I don’t radio in that it’s safe to come down. Only one wrist band was still working and they thought it might be a glitch and they think you’re all dead. You have to radio in” Raven rambled a little.

“Okay, you sit here and stay still and calm while I use the radio” Clarke said as she saw through the corner of her eye Finn walk hesitantly to Raven, who immediately threw herself into his arms, so sure of her welcome.

“Hello, Arc, come in please. This is earth calling the Arc, come in please” Clarke said into the receiver. “This is Clarke Griffin on earth calling the Arc, come in please.”

“Clarke, is that really you? It’s the Chancellor. Is everyone else with you?” Jaha was clearly really asking about his son.

“I take it you mean Wells. No he’s not with us. He left to go to Mt Weather the day we landed. He hasn’t been seen since and everyone else removed their wrist bands” Clarke replied.

“What about the others who went with him? Why didn’t you go with him?” Jaha asked sounding distraught.

“No one wanted to accompany the son of the man who floated their parents and sent them down here to die; that not only includes me but especially includes me since he was the dirty double crosser who handed my dad in to get floated and landed me in solitary.”

“He got himself arrested so he could be there with you, for you, I thought you would still be his friend” Jaha sounded so self-righteous.

“I didn’t ask him to get arrested; I didn’t want him here with me. Why would I be friends with someone who betrays my trust the way he did? My dad is dead. I spent over a year alone in solitary confinement, and then I was sent here to die, all because of him.” Clarke was furious.

“You were not sent there to die. You were sent there to live” he insisted.

“No we weren’t. If we were sent here to live, why did you not send any rations with us? Why were there no tents? No blankets, no water canteens, weapons to defend ourselves with against wild animals, knives to cut plants, axes to chop trees, nothing. You sent nothing with us that would help us to live” Clarke spelled out their situation.

“Everything you need is in Mt Weather. My message told you all to go to Mt Weather” Jaha sounded desperate.

“Unfortunately Mt Weather is more than a day’s quick hike away, assuming the nearest mountain to us is Mt Weather and we need to be near water. If you’re so sure that Mt Weather has all the supplies needed, you better make sure that when you come down you land a lot closer to it than we did. Try again Chancellor” Clarke was derisive.

“If you’re to the south of Mt Weather, I can give you the coordinates of a FEMA bunker quite near you that should have some supplies” Jaha offered.

“Okay, I think we’re to the south, south west.” Clarke said.

The Chancellor read off some co-ordinates that could be checked on the tablet that Raven had brought with her. “And Clarke, it wasn’t Wells who told me about your father’s plan, I didn’t even know he knew about it” the Chancellor added. “I’m sure you can work out the only other person it could have been. Get back in touch to let me know about that bunker. Jaha out.”

Clarke was in shock. It had to have been Wells, no one else but her and her mom knew about her dad’s plan – unless he confided in a friend. That had to be it, if Wells was genuinely not the one to betray her father. But if Wells didn’t betray her, then he probably died, because he wanted to come down to earth with her, for her, and she let him wander off to Mt Weather and she hated him.

“Oh God” Clarke cried. 

“Clarke, what it is?” Charlotte asked.

“Wells, his wrist band stopped working so he’s dead. He kept trying to talk to me but I ignored him, and I hated him for something he didn’t do. He was my friend, my only friend for my whole life and he died with me hating him.”

Charlotte, although a lot younger than Clarke knew that at that moment Clarke was the one who needed some TLC and hugged Clarke to her own shoulder, holding her tight while she cried for her lost friend.

“We can’t replace him for you, but you’ve got us now, seven friends, maybe eight with the new girl if Fox doesn’t kill her” Charlotte comforted.

“Thanks; you’re right, I have seven, possibly eight new friends and I need to get my act together so that we can get back to camp and I can treat her head wound properly.” Clarke and Charlotte clambered out of the pod, taking everything they could find that they could pull away from the shell and carry.

Just as the bags were being hefted onto their shoulders the Jester came bursting through the trees. He looked awful; thin, older, very unkempt. ‘Whatever the hell we want’ didn’t seem to be working out too well for him.

“Don’t worry, there were no supplies, just a girl; although we did strip some wires and panels away to take back with us.” Clarke didn’t mention the tablet or radio. “When Raven has been treated for her head wound we’ll probably come back to take whatever else she thinks we might be able to use, like more metal panels, and since you have the drop ship, the least you can do is to let us have this pod, especially since it looks like it was put together with little more than scraps and prayer.”

For some reason Bellamy seemed to be relieved by Clarke’s words and he turned back the way he came.

The gang, Raven supported by Finn, Fox supported by Harper and Zoe, Clarke supported by Charlotte and Monty and Jasper wondering how it was all going to turn out, made their way back to their camp. It was very late, early morning really when they arrived home. Clarke suggested that Finn and Raven take the cave and they would sort everything out the next day after they all had some sleep.

Raven clearly knew something was going on. No one was speaking to Finn and Fox was receiving lots of support from the others. She was getting lots of sad sympathetic looks. It could only mean one thing: Finn had cheated on her with Fox.

On the one hand it could be argued that Finn thought that he and Raven had been split up by forces outside their control. On the other hand Finn had to know that the Arc would soon be following so they would be back together then. Once Raven knew that Finn had been sent to earth she did everything she could to make sure she made her way to him. Finn seemed to just accept they were parted and decided to move on. It was clear that Finn did not love her the way she loved him. The question was, what was she to do about it?

Raven didn’t come down with any spare clothing so all the girls pooled together to give her something so that she had one spare set. They had a few other bits from the bunker, and hopefully the FEMA supply depot would also have some clothes they could use. On hearing a little about Raven’s skills, Clarke suggested that they all go to the FEMA depot and that the next day Finn take Raven to the bunker he found to see if there was anything that she could use. Clarke thought it would give Raven and Finn a chance to talk to decide together what they would do about their relationship.

The FEMA depot provided more than they expected, but not as much as they had hoped. There were some ugly bright orange blankets that would be so useful; there were some tins of food that had long since expired, but Monty said should still be edible; there were some large plastic containers of very stale water, but would be very useful for them to top up with fresh water and keep in the cave or living area; there were some items of clothing; there were some solar charged flashlights which would be great for the cave; there were a few hunting knives; but the things that they weren’t expecting was guns and bullets.

“No,” Finn was arguing, “we do not need guns!”

“And if the cave does turn out to be the hibernation hole of a big bear how do you think we can win against that?” Jasper asked. “We don’t like the idea of us having guns, but they will be useful.”

“As much as I don’t want us to have them, I would absolutely hate it if the other lot found them so I say we take them and learn how to use them properly” Zoe said emphatically.

“Yeah” said Clarke. “We need all the help we can get for self-defence, and we need to be smart about looking after the guns and being able to use them. We take them and the bullets and at some point we check them out. Harper, you’re our weapons expert, can you take on the responsibility of being in charge of them?”

Harper agreed.

There was nothing there that Raven thought she could repurpose except for the metal grate shelving. It was too much for them to carry so they agreed to remove that at a later date.

The evening meal that night was awkward. It wasn’t long before everyone bar Raven and Finn decided that they were tired and left for their beds. No sleep was had for some time as they could all hear Raven and Finn argue about the fact that he couldn’t even wait two weeks before cheating on her. The argument appeared to be circular, Finn thought he would never see her again; Raven saying he should have known that she would come down sooner or later and waited. After a period of quiet Raven came to Clarke and Charlotte’s hut and asked if she could sleep with them. It was a very tight squeeze but they managed.

Raven put herself in charge of making their camp habitable. She set about ordering the making of more, bigger, better huts. Everyone was either hunting, gathering or building and no one argued against Raven’s words.

Fox, Harper and Zoe had the first new hut. The metal shelving from the FEMA bunker was used to give them all a bed raised off the stone based floor. Pine branches were used as insulation and to soften the metal bed bases. The material from the parachutes made the roof waterproof. The double entry doorway kept out the drafts. It was good.

Having one hut made as the blueprint meant is was a lot quicker and easier to make another. The second one was given to the boys, although Raven was not happy that Finn should have better housing than herself.

They didn’t have enough time to finish another before they were hit with a heavy down pour so Raven, Clarke and Charlotte slept in the cave. All the others said how they were kept warm and dry throughout the night.

Their days were kept busy and not unhappy despite the personal tension. Raven took to treating Finn the same as she did Monty and Jasper; that is like a younger brother. Fox completely ignored him, which he seemed to find attractive because he would find any excuse to talk to her, try to touch her, get her attention on him. It didn’t work and he was starting to harass Fox. Clarke decided it was time for an intervention.

“Finn, Fox doesn’t want anything to do with you. If you don’t stop harassing her I’m going to call for a camp meeting and ask for suggestions for punishment. Keep your behaviours up and you’ll find that no one in camp wants to talk to you so give it up. This is your one and only warning” Clarke told him.

Finn didn’t take it well.

“Hey everyone, listen up!” he shouted. “The Princess here says that she’ll call a camp meeting to discuss my punishment for having the audacity to love Fox!”

Clarke wasn’t the only one unhappy with the way it was phrased. “You mean your punishment for lying to her and pestering her when she wants nothing to do with you once you’re found out” Zoe corrected. “I say you should be banished if you don’t leave her alone.”

“Yeah, you can go back to Bellamy’s lot” said Harper.

“Fox, what do you want?” Raven asked, something that must have been so hard for her.

“I just want him to leave me alone, stop trying to talk to me, stop touching me” Fox said.

“That sounds reasonable, mate” Monty said. “Leave her alone and there’ll be no problems, right?”

“Yeah, man” Jasper put in. “You made a mistake. Learn from it and allow everyone to get over it and no worries.”

“Can you do that, Finn?” Clarke asked. “Can you accept that Fox does not want you touching her anymore, or even talking to her?”

Finn looked hard at Fox and Clarke was surprised to see the level of anger. “It seems like I don’t have a choice, doesn’t it.”

When Finn was off checking the snares with Charlotte, Clarke went to Fox and gave her a small knife and offered the words “use it if he touches you again”. Fox just nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well we all knew that Earth provides more than good stuff: more people = more potential problems.
> 
> Please stay safe everyone. I want you to be able to enjoy lots of holiday seasons with your loved ones, not just this one.


	3. Earth - The Killer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Earth gave, it also takes away. The gang learn of just some of the ways by which Earth can take away their loved ones. They learn that there are a lot more people on Earth than they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CANON CHARACTER DEATHS - it doesn't get too grizzly, the details are broad. The deaths for the main characters are not as happened to them in canon, but the type of deaths are canon like.

Clarke continued to hold occasional radio conversations with the Arc; none of which were doing anything to change her mind about not living with them once they came to Earth. 

Her mom said that she was looking forward to joining Clarke on Earth and that she would likely be on the first drop ship to leave (completely ignoring the fact that the first drop ship had already left the Arc and the people on it were all told that they were expendable). Abby couldn’t wait for Clarke to join her in setting up and running the new Medical Centre and she ignored all Clarke’s hints that she wouldn’t be joining her mom in running, or working in the new medical centre.

The next drop ship with essential personnel would soon be departing for Earth and it would be up to Clarke to make sure that all was as it should be since it didn’t seem like they would be able to rely on the other bunch of delinquents to be anything other than trouble. Jaha was glad that the trust he placed in Clarke when sending her to Earth had not been totally misplaced despite what happened with Wells and he looked forward to welcoming her, and her team of young people, back into the fold. Clarke didn’t like to tell Chancellor Jaha that while she and her people would do all they reasonably could to help any new arrivals to Earth, she would definitely not be joining them and she rather thought that most her team wouldn’t want to live under their rule again either. The ground was big enough for them to have their own homes and, if necessary, Clarke would move. Since they would be able to go further afield to explore come the spring they would surely find another spot as good, if not better, to set up their own home far away from the Arc’s control.

Even knowing it was coming, it was still a shock when there was another loud crack of a ship entering the earth’s atmosphere; this time it was much louder than the sound of Raven’s pod coming to the ground. Clarke had expected that the Chancellor would have at least told her which day it was to arrive so they could make sure that they were prepared.

The group watched as the drop ship came down fast – too fast.

“It’s going to crash rather than land!” Monty said, frightened of what it might mean.

“At least their aim was better” Jasper said as they saw the drop ship erupt into an enormous fire ball as it smashed into what they assumed was Mt Weather. There was no way anyone of the hundred or so passengers could possibly have survived that explosion.

“There’s no point in even trying to look for survivors to help” Clarke said sadly. “On the extremely unlikely chance that there was a miracle and someone survived, they would be dead by the time we got there and I very much doubt that there would be anything worth us having to carry all the way back here for us to use. The only thing we can do for them now is to offer them the Travellers’ Blessing.”

The others could only agree and the whole episode put a dampener on their mood as they recited the words to send those aboard the ship to their eternal rest. 

Clarke knew that it was likely that her mother was on board that drop ship so she was now an orphan, something that she knew she had in common with a few of her fellow camp mates. Clarke removed her wrist band knowing that there was no one left who would care to know that she was still alive. 

Raven tried to contact the Arc to tell them what happened but she was unable to get through: something or someone was blocking their signal; and it was frustrating Raven that she didn’t know and couldn’t work out how or why it was happening. After three days of getting nowhere, it was decided that they would leave it to the Arc to contact them when they were able and Raven put aside her work on the radio.

Over time the camp settled into a routine. The mornings were spent hunting, fishing, gathering or working to improve their accommodations. They spent the afternoons doing something that could be useful, but also fun, target practice was the main game. Although they had the guns, they did not want to use them since they seemed so out of place on this relatively peaceful earth and they wanted to do nothing to alert the other camp as to their ownership; so they practiced making and throwing spears; and Archery with rudimentary bow and arrows that they improved upon each time they were used. Raven thought she could probably come up with something to make the guns quieter so as to reduce the risk of the other group hearing them and coming to investigate if necessary: but they elected not to, which fed into Finn’s false sense of importance within the group because he thought it was due to his persuasive words rather than the desire to make sure they stayed out of the main group’s radar.

Finn managed to limit himself to giving longing looks towards Fox and Raven, clearly distressed at the loss of the friendship if nothing else. He did however manage to make friends with Charlotte who proved most gifted when it came to setting snares and always caught something. She also had a knack for fishing with the crude net that Clarke made so they managed to have a varied and nutritional diet and were able to store some dried meat and fish for winter, and make more fur blankets and clothing.

Bathing and washing clothes became a bit more of a chore the colder the water became, but they were determined to tough it out and maintain a degree of cleanliness. The boys weren’t too happy about it until Clarke said to them “It’s really good for you; it gets the blood flowing quicker so it is better for getting rid of toxins, helping you think, stamina building and healing any cuts.” They were a bit happier about it after that.

“Is any of what you said true?” Raven asked quietly.

“Not really, but it sounded logical, don’t you think?” Clarke replied. 

The two young women dissolved into giggles and Clarke that at the very least it wouldn’t do them any harm and could well have a placebo effect on helping to keep them healthy.

One day their peace was disturbed by the arrival of yellow fog. They had seen it in the distance previously, but it had never reached their camp before. Thinking that it was probably toxic they decided to retire to the cave until it had past.

“I want to get the cards!” Charlotte declared. “I’ll be quick, just dash there and back holding my breath!”

“No, Charlotte!” Clarke cried trying unsuccessfully to grab the young girl to prevent her from leaving the safety of the cave.

Charlotte jumped into the yellow fog and immediately started to scream. “It’s burning! It’s burning!”

Finn, who was closest to the cave entrance, fell out after Charlotte and immediately started to groan. Charlotte’s head was pushed through the cave entrance and willing hands went to help pull her in. Clarke covered her arms and hands in blankets and went to help pull Finn back in.

Both Charlotte and Finn’s exposed skin was covered in blisters and boils, their eyes cloudy and unseeing.

“Quick, put your gloves on and gently remove their clothes, then try to rinse them with the water we have here, and if any of you have burns to rinse them too” Clarke said as she ended up slicing through Charlotte’s top and the seams of her trousers and pulling off her boots. 

Clarke could see that where Charlotte wore fur and her boots the skin was protected, but where only thin Arc clothes were what protected the skin, it was blistering. Using a little water to try to rinse off what was apparently acid from her skin resulted only in further screams of pain from Charlotte.

Finn was merely groaning as some lumps of flesh were pulled away with his clothes where they were next to the exposed skin.

Raven was crying as she looked at her childhood friend, her former love. She could see no way by which he could recover as Raven watched Finn’s face appear to melt away before her eyes.

“Rae, sorry for hurting you” Finn whispered as he moaned in pain.

“S’okay” Raven whispered, near to his head, but unwilling to risk hurting him further by getting too close. “I forgive you. You are my best friend, you saved my life. I owe you everything.”

“Then kill me, please Rae. Kill me now so it doesn’t hurt anymore, please.” Finn begged.

“I can’t kill you Finn, I can’t. It would kill me to have to end your life” Raven was in tears.

“Please Rae, please” Finn continued to beg.

Clarke could hear everything and was coming to the conclusion that she would not be able to save Charlotte. Charlotte would soon go into shock and shortly afterwards her body would begin shutting down and Charlotte would die in great pain unless she lost consciousness first. Clarke prepared to mentally put Charlotte’s needs aside for a short while because she also needed to take a look at Finn.

“Fox, come here and try to cool Charlotte’s skin while I take a quick look at Finn” Clarke suggested as Charlotte went quiet and started to shake.

It didn’t require much of an examination for Clarke to know that the situation for Finn was just as dire as it was for Charlotte.

“I’m sorry, Finn. You will need skin grafts and I can’t do them. I don’t think there is anything anyone on earth can do for you” Clarke said.

“Then kill me, please, Clarke. Take my pain, please” Finn begged again.

“Okay, Finn; I’ll take your pain away. You won’t suffer for any longer” Clarke said as she moved aside to allow Raven to get close to say her goodbyes.

“I’ll see you on the other side, Finn” Raven said as Clarke sliced Finn’s carotid. “There’s no may about us meeting again, I’ll see you …” and Raven started to cry as Finn had taken his last breath.

Leaving Raven to weep over Finn’s body, Clarke turned back to Charlotte only to find that Charlotte had gone through shock very quickly and died in the short time Clarke was with Finn.

“Charlotte’s gone, too” Clarke said sadly. “Once the fog has passed we will need to bury them. We need to do something about preparing for that stuff when it comes again. We can’t risk being caught out in that. I guess we’re lucky in a way that we haven’t been hit by it before. I wonder if the other camp was hit, too.”

“Lucky?” Raven cried. “Finn is dead. Charlotte is dead and you guess we are lucky! What sort of person are you Griffin that you can calmly kill one of your own people and think that you are lucky?”

Defensive, Clarke retorted “I think I am the sort of person who thinks that we are lucky that Jasper found this cave thus allowing us to take shelter; I think we are lucky that we weren’t all out in the forest with no shelter for any of us when it hit; I’m the sort of person who thinks it is lucky that there are still seven of us alive when we could all have been killed by that fog. We could have all suffered agonising burns and died from them. I’m the sort of person who is glad that I had to end the suffering of one person and not more. Maybe my choice of wording was poor, but I am not going to apologise for the sentiment behind them.”

“You don’t have to, Clarke” Harper said as she came to hug Clarke in consolation. “We know that you didn’t want to have to kill Finn, just like we know you didn’t want Charlotte to die. Raven knows that too, so just take a small break from being our fearless leader and give yourself a few minutes to grieve.”

Clarke cried in Harper’s arms: she cried for the loss of young, eager, innocent Charlotte who so loved her time with Clarke; and for Finn, the charming, likable and oh so thoughtlessly brave Finn.

It took hours to dig the two graves. Clarke knew that Raven was giving her dirty looks as she removed Finn’s boots and what was left of his outer wear; but they would need them eventually. Clarke laid some moss on the floor of the graves for the bodies to rest upon. They were then covered with fir so that the gang would not have to look at their faces when they were covered up with the soil. 

While the soil was being put back into the holes, they recited the traveller’s blessing: “In peace may you leave the shore …” until the graves were covered and they said a final “May we meet again.”

Raven never apologised to Clarke for the things she said, and Clarke didn’t really expect her to; but at least she acted as though she didn’t mean them, and for Clarke that was enough. As skilful as he was at tracking and setting snares, something that Fox took over since she was now the best; it was Charlotte who Clarke missed the most. She missed Charlotte’s youthful naivety, her cheerful optimism and the way she looked at all her companion campers as if they hung the moon.

Their life progressed through towards the beginning of winter. There were no more fruits to be found but they still were able to collect plenty of nuts. The hunting was relatively plentiful as the various animals were out trying to find food so they could fatten up enough to get through either their hibernations or the food shortages of the winter.

Frost was on the ground early mornings and bathing in the lake was definitely a chore rather than a pleasure, but they all resolved to carry on and hopefully grow inured to the cold.

Clarke, Raven and Fox were out checking snares and looking for anything that they could use to further insulate their cabins, or eat when they found something that shocked them.

“Oh my gosh. Am I the only one seeing this?” Fox asked.

Clarke raced to look and check on their find. “They’re alive” Clarke yelled. “Come on, we need to help them.”

Clarke tried to put the arm of one of the young men over her shoulder and to heft him up to take him back to their camp. He was too heavy and she needed help.

“Here let me help you” Fox said as she went to do the same on the man’s other side. “Raven, can you stay with the rest until we get back with more hands?” Raven nodded her assent as Clarke and Fox dragged the young man away and hopefully towards safety.

While Clarke tried to ascertain if the young man had any injuries, the rest of their group went with Fox to bring back the other males. Clarke could just about recognise this one from the drop ship even though she couldn’t remember his name. He looked a lot thinner, very unkempt and a lot older than she remembered. On realising that there were no injuries, Clarke began making a broth, something that would be fairly easy on their stomachs, but would contain some nutrients to help them get back on their feet.

It didn’t take long for the others to return carrying the other three young men, one of whom Clarke recognised as the court jester Bellamy.

None of them were injured. They probably just got too tired due to malnutrition and couldn’t summon up the will power to get up and carry on once they settled to rest. It was even possible that the guys were looking for them. Something to sort out once they were on the path to recovery, Clarke decided. The guys were propped up against the seats they kept close to the fire so that they wouldn’t choke as they were given broth and water.

Fox and Harper went back out to search for more food. Jasper and Monty, under Raven’s close supervision, began to make another shelter. They didn’t have enough time to make sure it was fully waterproof before the next day so they hoped it wouldn’t rain overnight; and it wouldn’t be insulated so they would need plenty of bedding to keep out the cold. It didn’t seem likely, but it was also possible that their guests would not be staying beyond the one night. 

Clarke didn’t know whether it was the warmth of the fire, or the food and liquid in their bellies as forced by Clarke and Zoe; or a mixture of both, but it didn’t seem to take long before the young men began to awaken.

“Hey, shush, calm down” Clarke and Zoe reassured their patients. “You’re safe here now. We’ve got you. You just need to take it easy for a while. Just stay by the fire and sip this broth and soon you’ll be back to normal.”

With the men awake, it was easier to get them to swallow the broth, which they seemed so eager to do. The more they consumed, the better they became.

“Okay, Jester” Clarke began, talking to Bellamy, “what’s going on with you four? Why are you in such a state?”

“There’s other survivors already living here” Bellamy began to Clarke’s shock. “Octavia made friends with one of them. We landed in their territory, frightening and taking away their food, and they want us dead. We didn’t know. We thought we were alone and we didn’t have to worry about other people, especially if we stayed away from the Arc people when they landed, but we were wrong. Lincoln, Octavia’s friend, has taken a large group to stay with some other people, but he would only take 20 so we four decided to branch out before we were killed off too.”

“What? There’s only 24 of you left? What happened to everyone else?” Clarke asked.

“Some killed by grounder traps, some by sickness – a lot of fevers, Lincoln said blood infections, I think hunger made people careless and there was some accidents, the acid fog, that awful storm that cost us most of our supplies. You?” Clarke couldn’t tell if Bellamy was hoping that worse had befallen on them or if all was well with them.

“We lost Finn and Charlotte to the fog but we’ve had no sickness or hunger. Easier to feed the few of us, I suppose and I’m a Medic so know how to treat the few wounds we got so they didn’t get infected” Clarke offered.

“I killed Mbege in a fight” Murphy added as if it was a confessional. “Didn’t mean for him to die, I just wanted him to stop riding me about stuff I couldn’t do nothing about.”

“We found Wells, not long after he set off to try to reach Mt Weather” Bellamy interrupted Murphy’s melancholy. “He’d been tied to a stake and left as bait for a grounder trap. Roma fell into the trap when she saw him tied up. It looked like he’d had a spear through his chest. It’s a good job you were pissed with him and didn’t go too. Lincoln told us they were watching your group too, for a while, but decided to leave you alone since you were on the border of their territory with another clan and not encroaching on any of their hunting grounds. Guess it doesn’t hurt that there are not so many of you, either.”

“Well I hope you didn’t piss the grounders off too much ‘coz it looks like you four are now part of us. Hope you like fish” Clarke snarked in an effort to not think about all the other young lives lost in the short time since they were dropped on, no; they were thrown to Earth.

Bellamy smirked “we like anything and everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More join the gang; it's going to start getting interesting soon. They have a way to go before they are up to full strength/size, but I've got to make their growth organic.
> 
> Please stay safe and help keep your loved ones safe.


	4. Earth - The Unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Earth brings some unexpected bounty to Clarke and her people; and some unexpected problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is now aware that they are sharing the ground with other people and she gets the chance to find out a little bit more about them. It's got to be a bit disconcerting when you come across one - right?

The next day everyone gathered around the fire chewing on some dried fruit and drinking a hot tea made from some tree bark for their breakfast. Clarke repeated for everyone to hear what Bellamy had told her the evening before.

“We brought three back packs each. Are they here?” Bellamy asked.

“No” Clarke replied. “We focussed on bringing you four back and didn’t go looking around for your luggage, why?”

“We put as much as we could into them and tied what we could to them. There’s more clothes and boots, parachute and rope, cables and other stuff we could pull from the ship. No furs, we gave all those to the others.”

“We’ll go and look for them after breakfast” Monty said, indicating him and Jasper.

“After you’ve done your morning ablutions” Clarke corrected.

“Ah, man. I thought this would be the perfect reason to let go for a day” Jasper replied as all the females smirked.

Seeing the puzzled looks on their new members faces Clarke explained that the females first go in the lake, before breakfast, to wash themselves and their clothes, catch a few fish, and after breakfast it was the males’ turn. The idea of washing every day seemed to puzzle them, but they just shrugged. “We’ll let you off washing until after lunch so you have something to change into” Clarke decreed.

While everyone else went about their usual morning routines, the four new members fell asleep in front of the fire. No doubt having food in their stomachs, as well as the warmth from the fire, brought on this newfound ability to relax.

Monty and Jasper could only find nine backpacks, which meant that three were still missing. Still, on unpacking them they found much that would be very useful. The clothes were clean enough that the men could change into them after they had their bath. Sorting out one set for each of them the rest was put safely into the cave for storage.

The parachutes could be used to make mattresses to stuff so that everyone’s bed was a bit softer. The stuffing would be a bit difficult, but nothing they couldn’t overcome.

There was enough thin, malleable metal that Raven said could be used to make a chimney so they could light a fire in the cave, if necessary; and she could make a canopy to go over the outdoor fire so that they could keep the rain off and dry their clothes near it when it became too cold in winter to dry in their cabins. 

All told, it was a good haul, almost worth having the four currently useless lumps to feed!

After lunch, consisting of rabbit stew that went down a real treat with everyone especially the four new guys, work was carried out on the new cabin to make sure it was water proof. The four newcomers, despite the freezing cold, enjoyed their first bath carried out in relative safety and managed to clean themselves, their clothes and shave. Once dried and dressed they almost looked healthy.

Around the fire that night, Bellamy told Clarke’s group everything that they had learned from Lincoln about the grounders, including the fact that there were thousands of them divided into 12 clans. The drop ship had landed in Trikru territory, quite close to Mt Weather which is inhabited by people who steal people, hundreds each year, for some reason that the grounders don’t know so no one goes anywhere near there if they can help it. Lincoln had led the other 20, including Octavia, east to Flokru, that is the boat people who live by the sea, the Atlantic Ocean.

The grounders, Bellamy informed them, spoke their own language, each clan’s was slightly different but they were generally able to understand each other, but it was nothing like English and impossible for them to understand, except for the odd word or phrase.

After lunch the next day, there was a loud crack; the sound of something entering the atmosphere: then another, and another. They all looked up to the sky expecting to see more drop ships: they didn’t.

“It’s the Arc” Raven exclaimed, recognising the shapes, even at so great a distance. “They’re bringing the whole damned thing down! What the hell happened up there?” A question that none of them could answer; or even make a guess at.

Everyone watched as pieces of their former home fell through the atmosphere, crashing to the ground many miles away. It was clear that some would have been completely destroyed, but it was possible that some people could have survived some of the landings.

“What do we do?” Fox asked and everyone looked to Clarke to make the decision.

“We do nothing at the moment” she decided. “They are too far away for us to get to them with even a full day’s walking and we don’t know in what territory they have landed. We’ll study the map Lincoln gave Bellamy and try to work out where they might have landed and go from there. Bellamy, can you think about everything Lincoln told you about the clans and try to note where they might be? The rest of us carry on for now.”

“What? No, we can’t just leave them, Clarke” Harper said. “They’re our people!”

“Our people who sent us down here to die” Clarke reminded them. “If it seems feasible for us to get to them, we will see if we can offer some help, but we don’t put ourselves at risk for them.”

“She’s right” said an unexpected voice as a man, a very large grounder swathed in furs, and bedecked in various weapons strode arrogantly into their camp carrying two more of their back packs. “These are yours” and he threw the packs towards Miller and Murphy. “One of the pieces looked like it landed deep in Azgeda territory. Any survivors will be killed on sight as unwelcome invaders. Another piece looked like it landed somewhere around the border of Azgeda, Ouskejonkru and Trikru. The fate of any survivors depends on which side of the border they landed. You are lucky that you landed in Trikru and they adopted a watch and wait policy before deciding your fate. The larger group were too noisy and you cut into their hunting by taking their meat and chasing it away which is why they had to go. Here, you’re on the border with Ouskejonkru, and although you are a little noisy, you’re not affecting anyone at the moment. To be honest, I’m not sure you should stay after winter, though. With more of your people possibly here, you could attract unwanted attention, but no one will do anything until after winter.”

There was a few moments of silence until Clarke suddenly pulled herself together. “Thank you for bringing these to us” indicating the two loaded back packs, “and for the advice, but, well, umm, who the hell are you?”

“Sorry, it’s been such a long time since I’ve been in company that I appear to have forgotten my manners” he said haughtily. “I am Roan, formerly of Azgeda, that is the Ice nation, at your service.”

“Nice to meet you Roan, formerly of Azgeda. I am Clarke, formerly of the Space nation, I guess, and this is Raven, Bellamy, Murphy, Fox, Harper, Jasper, Monty, Zoe, Miller and Sterling, also all formerly of the Space nation. What do you recommend about checking on our former people?”

“Trikru are calling you Skaikru, so stick to that” Clarke nodded her acceptance of what to her was so minor a detail. “Tomorrow, if you are agreeable, I can lead a small team of you, people who would be recognised, to where we think one piece may have landed. As long as we don’t cross into Azgeda territory we should be fine with a small group” Roan offered.

Clarke looked to her people. “Anyone have any objections to that?” There were shakes of heads. “Then in that case I suggest Raven, Miller and I go, if you’re up to it, Miller, if not Monty.”

“I’m fine now” Miller said.

“Erm, Clarke” Bellamy was hesitant, and surprisingly polite. “I don’t want anyone from the Arc to see me since I shot the Chancellor to get on the dropship.” There was not an ounce of apology in his tone.

“I guessed you had done something like that” Clarke said prosaically to everyone else’s surprise. “At least we know you didn’t kill him since he has been his usual bombastic self with the orders and not listening to the responses before we lost contact” and Bellamy gave a big sigh of relief. “Don’t worry, I haven’t changed my mind from when we first landed and have no intention of joining up with the people of the Arc either so if nothing else we can form a small band. Everyone else can decide for themselves when we know who, if anyone, survived.” 

There were no further arguments, although Murphy did comment under his breath that he wasn’t joining up with the people of the Arc either.

While everyone was sat around the fire eating some supper – caught by Roan, skinned by Zoe, cooked by Jasper; and drinking some of Monty’s moonshine, Roan told them all the history of the coalition, the Kongeda as he called it from his perspective, placing a different spin on what Lincoln had told Bellamy but it was definitely the same story, and explained why he was clanless and how he was forever marked as such.

“I could do something about that, if you wanted” Clarke offered. “We don’t have any pain killers, other than mild herbal stuff that Monty has found, but I could make your scars less prominent, and change what is visible so you might be able to blend in a bit more.”

“Thank you, but I am not ashamed of who I am, I just have to make sure that I can cover up the scars temporarily at times” Roan replied. Both Clarke and Bellamy were envious of Roan’s confidence in himself.

Clarke, Raven and Miller each packed a bag with some clean clothes, some bedding, a filled water bottle and some dried fish, meat and fruits. Roan raised his brow and agreed to take some too but thought it would be better to catch their food each day.

“I agree, and if it turns out that we don’t need the dried food, then we can return it to stores when we get back” Clarke said as she then made sure that they had knives, or something to defend themselves with.

Sorting out sleeping quarters was awkward until Roan just said that he would bed down by the fire and he unwrapped a fur bedding roll that had Clarke kicking herself for not noticing earlier. Clarke was amazed at how quickly and easily Roan had gained the trust of the whole group; but she had no doubt that if Roan so wanted, they would all be dead by morning.

“Come on, wake up time” was boomed through the camp and the loud clatter of the metal cups and plates that served as door bells on all the huts was heard making its way around. Clarke groaned and tried to hide back under her blanket but it was pulled away from her by a smirking Roan.

“I like your homes” he said. “Very practical and so very easy to replicate, as long as you’re near a forest, that is; and you can make them cooler for summer then warm them up again for winter. Come on, I have breakfast ready.”

“Raven and I need to wash first” Clarke groaned. “Can you wake the other girls while I make sure Raven is moving?”

“Don’t bother, I’m up even though it isn‘t even dawn. That water is going to be beyond cold” Raven complained.

“Why do the rest of us have to get up if we’re not going anywhere?” Jasper asked sleepily as he rubbed his face.

“No idea” Clarke said. “If you want everyone else can go back to bed but Miller, you’ll have to bathe with Raven and me.”

Since everyone knew that Miller was gay, no one seemed to care as they shivered their way through their morning ablutions, Roan laughing all the while seemingly not at all bothered by the cold or the fact that everyone was naked in the water and that all three members of Skaikru were ogling his muscled torso (and, Clarke assured herself, admiring the artistry of the scars on his back). In fact Skaikru spent so much time admiring their new friend that Roan was finished well in advance of the rest of the bathers.

“I bet if we were to bathe with Roan every morning we would have no trouble getting out of bed” Raven said with a smile, the first hint of lust that Clarke had seen in Raven since she learned about Finn and Fox.

“I think he likes blondes” Miller said with a sigh of regret as Clarke shook her head in bafflement at his words.

Making her way back to the camp, Clarke noticed Roan and Bellamy in close conversation and wondered what they were talking about. It possibly wasn’t any of her business, but she had the feeling that she ought to know about it.

“Harper and fox are best at hunting and Monty at foraging” Clarke told Bellamy as they were ready to head out. “Don’t let any of them go too far away from camp, or go in the water drunk. Get Fox to teach you to swim if needed. The others know what to do. Stay safe and see you in five days.”

“Don’t worry so much Princess” Bellamy smirked at the old nickname, “we will be fine for a few days without you. Thank you for taking us in. May we meet again.”

“I didn’t know that you are a Princess” Roan said as they were walking along. Raven and Miller snorted in amusement.

“I’m not” Clarke retorted. “My parents held fairly senior positions on the Arc and were well off so I was sneeringly called the Princess. Being me didn’t get me any special privileges, knowledge or help when it came to coming down to earth so I have no idea why Bellamy harks on about it.”

“Maybe because you called him the Court Jester in retaliation” Miller retorted as Roan laughed.

“What were you and Bellamy talking about before we left?” Clarke asked. “It looked like it was the sort of conversation that I ought to be aware of.”

Roan thought for a moment before realising that Clarke was correct: she was the Heda of their little clan so she did need know what was said, and the reason behind it. “I warned him that he needed to do a better job of looking after your people than he did looking after his own. I told him to not let anyone wander beyond the perimeter that you had established as your territory, but to always stay alert in case someone decided to take advantage of your absence to attack.”

“Is that likely?” Clarke asked. “The part about someone coming to attack in our absence, I mean.”

Roan noticed the use of the word ‘our’ but, erroneously, didn’t think that Clarke was aware of it. “It is possible but not likely as long as they do not go beyond the area that you have stayed in. You do not appear to have anything that anyone from Trikru would want so they wouldn’t want to go to the effort with the attending risk, small as it is, of your people being able to defeat them.”

Clarke was pleased to note that Roan didn’t appear to know about the guns: it was information that she wanted to keep from their new friend, ally even, until she was sure that he could be trusted with all their lives for as long as he lived, and not just while it suited him; because Clarke didn’t know why Roan was helping them, what his angle was, and until she did, she was going to continue to be just a little bit cautious with what information she shared with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Roan is here. All is well with my little piece of the imaginary world.
> 
> I hope you can enjoy escaping to the imaginary future with me, and that you and your people are still safe and well.


	5. Earth - The New Arrivals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and her kru try to help the new people who fell to Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So very, very sorry for being the idiot who posted the wrong chapter yesterday (UK time). This is the correct chapter 5. Many thanks to those who pointed out the inconsistencies, I was going to reply to you individually but when I deleted the chapter I also deleted the comments. I should have thought of that, sorry.
> 
> Anyway, I hope this makes all clear for you.

They hiked all morning, stopping for a brief lunch of some nuts and late fruits from the trees before hiking all afternoon. Just as dusk was beginning to set in, they could see the outline of a part of the Arc in the distance.

“Let’s camp here for the night” Roan said. “It will be better to approach in daylight rather than the dark.” There were no disagreements.

Clarke and Raven quickly built an open ended shelter in case of rain while Miller collected firewood and Roan went to hunt for some meat. By the time Roan returned with a brace of birds the fire was going and the shelter had been raised off the ground with their bedding laid out.

“I’m impressed” Roan said of the shelter, and threw his own fur in to claim his spot. He started to pluck the birds, ready to throw the feathers away but Clarke stopped him pointing out that the feathers could be used to stuff pillows or other bedding. Roan merely shrugged and allowed Clarke to collect the feathers and place them in her bag.

“What order should we set the watch?” Roan asked after they had eaten and he was replenishing his quiver of arrows.

“Not necessary” Raven said as she went around their small camp setting their alarms. “Just make sure that you don’t go outside of the perimeter after we settle for the night if you don’t want the rest of us ready to kill you when you come back.”

Roan grunted his approval and Miller looked on in admiration.

“Why were you four the ones to find us?” Clarke asked Miller.

“We were the ones to volunteer” Miller replied. “Bree also volunteered, but Bellamy refused: probably didn’t want to give her any expectations that he would take up with her again. I think Octavia was so pissed with Bellamy that she made it clear that she didn’t want him to be one of the twenty with them. Most seemed to think that they had a better chance with Lincoln, Octavia’s Trikru boyfriend, but I remember Bellamy saying that when he saw you before you looked good, all of you, so I thought we would have a better chance with you.”

“Your chance of survival depend on how you behave” Roan put in. “If the others continue to behave has they had at your ship then they won’t survive, if they do as Lincoln tells them then they probably will.”

“Either way it was a gamble” Miller said. “I think I probably made the right choice.”

The next morning they washed as best they could in the nearby stream and packed up ready to set off to see if there were any survivors. They decided to keep the shelter intact and just hid it using fir branches nearby.

It was almost lunch time when they got close enough to see what had landed – Alpha Station, Clarke and Miller’s old home. They also saw that there were some people wandering around, not knowing what to do with themselves, and some people digging graves.

“Do you think we would be more welcome if we came bearing gifts?” Miller asked. “You know, something like a deer or two wouldn’t go amiss.”

“He’s right” Roan said. “You wait here and watch, see if you can see someone you recognise while I see what I can find.”

It didn’t take long for Miller to spot his dad, or at least he thought the man was his dad who was holding a gun and standing guard over those who were digging graves, so they kept an eye on him as they looked for more familiar people. Raven then spotted her mentor as he walked from one part of the station to another. She had no doubts. Clarke didn’t spot anyone she knew.

Roan came back with a deer, a boar and three rabbits. Depending on how many people there were it would be enough for one meal. They gutted the animals and then lifted them up to head to the fallen Arc station, Miller in the lead.

David Miller almost didn’t recognise his son as he strolled towards him with three other people. He dropped his gun and ran to hug his only offspring.

“Hi, I’m Clarke Griffin, this is Raven Reyes and a friend of ours Roan” Clarke said. “We thought we should come to see if we can lend a hand. Roan caught us some meat as a ‘welcome to Earth’ present.”

Miller senior didn’t seem to know what to say, how to react. It took another guard to bring him back to his senses. The guard, Major Byrne, wasn’t too sure about letting Roan in with the others but Clarke and Raven both said that if Roan didn’t go in, neither did they and, more importantly, neither did the meat that he had caught for them, she relented, all the while keeping a suspicious eye on him.

The four were led through the very rag-tag camp. Clarke couldn’t believe how bad it was even after only a couple of days. The meat was taken to the canteen kitchen where it received a look of confusion. Roan offered to show them how to prepare it for cooking which was gratefully received. Major Byrne was torn between keeping an eye on Roan and taking the others to the Chancellor. Eventually she decided that Captain Miller could watch Roan.

“Mom!” Clarke exclaimed in surprise. “I thought you died when the exodus ship crashed.”

“Clarke, honey, my baby girl. Thank goodness you’re still alive and back with us, right where you belong” Abby hugged her daughter. 

Whilst Clarke was pleased her mom was alive, she had no intention of staying with them and said as much. “We only came to offer some assistance” she said.

“When Thelonious said he told you it was me who turned your father in I thought that you might want to stay away, but you seemed so pleased to see me that I thought you had forgiven me” Abby cried, not noticing that Clarke was slowly moving away from her.

“It was you? All this time you let me believe it was Wells and it was you. How could you? How could you get your husband killed, and your daughter locked up? Well that explains why you never came to visit me in solitary. I tell you what. Don’t talk to me anymore. I’ll wander around to see who we can help for myself.” Without waiting for her friends, Clarke left the Chancellor’s office to look for someone she could talk to about buildings.

“I am the Chancellor and you will stay here, young lady” Abby said.

“I thought you might want someone to help build some homes; someone to help with hunting and knowing what plants are poisonous, medicinal, food; someone who has made friends with a local survivor who can guide them to other crash sites to look for more of you. Am I wrong?”

“What do you mean ‘local survivor’?” Abby focussed on the point she didn’t understand.

“There are thousands of people already living around here. We were dropped in the middle of someone’s territory and were impinging on their hunting. A group of 20 has gone with one of the locals to find a new home and ten have settled with me. The rest have died. My local friend is currently showing your kitchen staff how to prepare meat. If you want us to continue helping you, you will not stand in our way” and Clarke stormed off to find Roan.

Roan was feeling very frustrated by this lot of people who fell from the sky. He tried to make allowances for the fact that everything about the ground was new to them, but really, Clarke’s group had more idea about how to survive in the tips of their fingers then the whole of the kitchen staff put together. Luckily, before he could let out his annoyance, Clarke came to retrieve him.

“Are we going to find the other site now? I suggest we take some rope since we will be traversing rock faces. Miller should stay here until we come back because he does not have the upper body strength needed. Perhaps he can show them how to make the shelters?”

Clarke thought for a moment. “Mother, we will need some rope and I suggest two of your people with strong upper bodies to come with Roan and me to look at another crash site. We think that one landed in Azgeda, which means it is very likely that anyone who survived the crash there will be killed as an unwelcome invader; but one station seemed to have landed just over into Blue Cliffs territory that we’re going to investigate. Raven and Miller can stay here to show you how to make better shelters, and then return to our camp to let the others know what’s happening. Roan, myself and the two you suggest will leave first light tomorrow.”

“Why do you have to go?” Abby asked.

Clarke didn’t verbally respond, but she did pick up Raven and tossed her to Roan before picking up Miller.

“You must not take your faya guns” Roan said. “They are against our law and if you are seen with one you will be killed immediately.”

“That is just plain ridiculous. You can’t expect us to send our people out there with no weapons” Abby returned.

“Why not? You sent us with no weapons, and no local to help us” Clarke pointed out. On receiving nothing more than looks of guilty defiance Clarke carried on “If you must bring a gun, make sure it a handgun and is fully concealed. Come on, we’ll go and look for some supplies for tomorrow. We won’t be long” Clarke said to the guard.

Once they were away from the station, Clarke told Raven and Miller that she discovered that it was her mom who had her dad floated and her locked up. Raven couldn’t believe that Abby would do such a thing. Roan wanted an explanation of what Clarke was saying. He too was surprised at the information, especially the part about Clarke having been in solitary confinement for more than a year – a very cruel punishment in his opinion, especially for one so young.

“If you want to stay with the station, then do so, but there is no way I am going to. We’ll lead the two Arkers back here with whoever we find then I’m peeling off to go back to our camp” Clarke said.

“I don’t trust them not to keep us here by force” Miller said, “and I do not want to be treated as a young criminal again so I’m not planning on returning after we’ve warned our camp on what’s happening. Raven?”

“I wouldn’t mind one way or another, maybe because I wasn’t actually a delinquent sent here to die because I was expendable, and I do have good job I could go back to. Okay, I wouldn’t have the same autonomy that I have now, but the work of setting up the camp for everyone should be more challenging. Maybe I’ll come back with one or two of the others for a bit and we could always leave later if the Exodus Charter gets too overbearing” Raven decided.

“You would be in a lot of danger here” Roan said. “This is too close to the mountain and the reapers and acid fog; you have to know the risks you will be taking.”

“Listen, if anyone wants to leave our camp to stay with the station they can. If we need to leave our camp for any reason, we’ll leave a message on the back wall of the cave as to where we’re going so if anyone wants to meet up again they can. Just don’t let my mother know where the camp is or where we’re going.”

They returned to the station with lots of long, thin, flexible branches and ivy stems to use as twine. Gaining the assistance of three from the station, they went into the forest to collect more, giving lessons on what to look for and why. They also selected a spot, quite close to the station to set up camp for the night. Roan set up a fire, showing the others how to do it, and buried some root vegetables he had found to cook slowly while they carried on working. They also searched for a source of fresh water so that they could top up their water bottles. After tasting water fresh from a stream there was no way Clarke wanted to go back to drinking recycled water, yeuch!

Back at the station, Roan pointed out that winter was almost upon them so they would need to make sure that they had a source of food and warm shelter to see them through the next season. He noted that none of them looked particularly well nourished and that would only worsen in the harsh cold that was to come.

Clarke thought that Roan spoke nothing but common sense, but it seemed that Abby was determined to ignore everything he said. She openly scoffed at him when Roan told her about the mountain men, the reapers and the acid fog they sent. There was no way that Clarke could countenance such blatant rudeness.

“Right, we’re off to our camp now. We’ll be back at first light to leave to look for the other site. Remember, good upper body strength and lots of strong rope. Sorry we didn’t think to bring any with us, not that we have a lot, but still …” and Clarke trailed off as she and Roan left; Raven and Miller opting to stay at the station for the time being.

Whilst they were siting by their fire eating their supper Clarke asked Roan to explain in more detail what he and Bellamy were talking about just before they left their camp – particularly the issue of possibly being attacked.

“I told him to keep everything calm and quiet because the chances are that someone from Trikru is watching you again, even if only loosely; to hunt only small game or fish and to stay close to your camp. I pointed out that he might be recognised as belonging to the other destructive camp so he should act as differently as possible to how he did while he led there. He told me that he thought Murphy might be the biggest problem with staying cool and calm. I reminded him that all your lives depended on them all doing just that” Roan said. “Do you think they might be a problem?”

“They appear to have learned from their past mistakes, and seem to be too weak to get up to too much mischief. When we get back we can make sure we work them too hard to have the energy to get into trouble” Clarke smirked.

“I like the way you think” Roan nodded in respect, and wondered if he was included in the ‘we’.

Clarke and Roan were awoken by their alarm system. “Don’t shoot, throw your knives or whatever, it’s only me” Miller said. “I just came to warn you that Dr Griffin is planning on making sure that you stay tomorrow, Clarke. When you arrive at the station you are not to be allowed back out again. I told my dad where I was going and not to expect me until morning so I can play it any way you want.”

Clarke and Roan looked at the moon and realised that there wasn’t that much time before dawn so decided to get packed up there and then. Roan led them to a spot that was protected and in the direction they would be heading. Clarke was to remain there until Roan arrived with no more than two from the station. If he didn’t arrive, she was to assume he was taken prisoner or killed and return to her camp immediately. Miller didn’t like to tell Roan that he thought the chances of Clarke leaving without him if he were hurt by her mother were practically zero, and Clarke didn’t bother to point it out to him either.

It took longer than it should have done for Roan and two guards to meet up with Clarke which told her that there was indeed a problem. Clarke gave Roan a discrete nod to indicate that she was on her guard. It was just as Roan suggested a stop for lunch because they were about to come to a cliff edge that would be difficult to transverse that the guards struck. They both pulled out their handguns and pointed them at Clarke and Roan.

“So you really don’t want to look for more survivors” Clarke said exasperated. “I would have thought you would at least wait until we found the crash site before pulling this shit. How selfish are you?”

The guards seemed to be a little conflicted. “The Chancellor just told us to make sure that we got you back as soon as possible. She said nothing about looking for more survivors” one of them said.

“That is why we are on this little trip. Do you want to look for more survivors or do you want to try to get me back to the Chancellor without having to kill me first? I assure you I will not go with you willingly and how will it look if you turn up with no news of another crash site and with my dead body?” Clarke asked them, wondering how bright they were.

“We could shoot him and then you would have to come willingly” one offered.

“Shoot my friend and he and I will kill you both before we leave you to the animals to feed off. Listen, let us just carry on to where we’re going, I’m sure you are going to have other opportunities to try to persuade us to your point, okay? And for goodness sake, put those things away before someone gets hurt. Come on, I’m hungry, didn’t have much of a breakfast this morning” and Clarke sat down to pull out some of her rations as if nothing untoward had occurred. Roan raised an amused brow and followed suit.

“The small cliff is the border between Trikru and Blue Cliffs. The valley is really used as no mans’ land and I would prefer we get to the shelter of the next cliff to camp for the night. We might have to walk fast, or in the dark a little since we set off so late” Roan said. “I think the other crashed piece might be just over the next hill. We should at least be able to see it tomorrow.”

Clarke just nodded and asked how they would get down the cliff.

“Depending on how nimble you are, we all should be able to get down easily if we take care of where we’re putting our feet. It’s a bit slippery with loose stones and we have to move along a very narrow ledge at one point so be careful of your balance” Roan said in total confidence of his ability to traverse the testing terrain with no difficulties.

Clarke gave instructions to the men to give her some privacy while she went to pee. Roan just gave an amused smirk as if it was an oddity to want privacy to pee; perhaps to him it was.

Roan led the way down a steep cliff. It wasn’t that difficult for Clarke to keep her balance but the guards weren’t so lucky. They had very sore and achy backsides by the time they reached the bottom. Roan and Clarke strode ahead leaving the guards to either keep up or not. For all they didn’t talk much, Clarke enjoyed how in sync she seemed to be with Roan judging by the amused smirks they exchanged.

When Clarke was sure she would not be over heard she told Roan that one of them had lost their handgun which was now safely residing in her backpack. She said that when they set camp she would be sure to put the still armed guard between the two of them so that she could arrange a little accident so they could disarm him, too.

As they got closer to the cliff they would have to climb Clarke noticed something at the top. She took out the scope she had ‘borrowed’ from David Miller and looked. It was a pack of wolves, circling and looking down the cliff edge: she followed their stares.

“Shit!” Clarke exclaimed. “There’s someone trapped clinging to a tree on a small ledge about a third of the way down with a pack of wolves circling above looking for a way to get to the meal.”

Clarke gave the scope to Roan and pointed to the wolves.

“Five wolves; difficult, not impossible. They’re too close to the edge for me to risk an arrow because one could fall over and bring the person down with them. The best bet is to secure the person then to try to take out some of the wolves. You up for an evening’s climb, Clarke, and do you think you could get me one of these?” Roan waved the scope.

Clarke nodded, in reply to both questions, and they hurried to the beginning of the climb. Roan used the scope to study the detail of the terrain and formulated his plan. Clarke and Roan climbed up to where the terrified young woman waited. Clarke gave her a little water and told her that she was going to be fine, that they would get her down and back with the rest of the survivors from Alpha, she just had to hold on and be calm. Mel, the woman was called, looked at Clarke and Roan in awe and promised to do what they said.

Roan thought the best thing to do was for Mel and Clarke to be tied together with rope and then secured to the ledge by a large overhang. Roan removed his fur cloak and covered them both. He then climbed down again and using his bow and arrows fired at the pack of wolves. As surmised, one did fall over the edge and it tried to gain traction by clawing at the women on the ledge. Thanks to Roan’s foresight, the wolf only managed to pull down his cloak. Roasted wolf was on the menu for that night’s supper. Roan could see that at least one other wolf was seriously injured so that reduced the danger from five to three. He instructed the guards to begin dressing and skinning the dead wolf. They looked at him as if he was speaking a foreign language so he suggested they walk for some time to either side of their position, keeping to the cliff face, to see if they could find a fresh water source. He then climbed back up to bring Mel down while Clarke brought herself down the cliff.

As soon as she was back on the ground, Clarke got out her meagre medical supplies while Roan saw to the wolf. Mel had a badly sprained ankle that needed strapping, an injured wrist and shoulder requiring a sling. She would not be able to walk unaided let alone climb cliffs.

Mel said she thought that she was the only survivor since she saw and heard no one else. She had been walking for a day or so when she fell down the cliff and hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since before they came down. Clarke warned her not to eat too much in one go, but to save some to have frequent, regular small amounts to eat.

Feigning light-headedness, Clarke fell against the armed guard and knocked him over. So apologetic she checked him over for injuries and lifted his handgun which she passed to Roan to hide upon his person.

“You need water” Roan said emphatically to Clarke. “You have not drunk nearly enough today that is why you are dizzy.”

Clarke meekly agreed and took some more of her water with an eye roll at her co-conspirator. 

“Why did you two stay up there while he tried to shoot the wolves instead of just coming straight down?” one of the guards asked.

“If we had come down with Mel the pack may have dispersed and there would have been more of them to attack us when we go up again to look for the crash site” Clarke explained. “This way there is definitely one fewer wolf to attack us, possibly more since others may be injured.”

Roan smirked to himself as he realised that he hadn’t explained his reasoning for his plan, but Clarke still understood.

The next morning Roan offered to climb up to check out the crash site himself. Clarke, naturally, would have nothing of it and insisted on going with him. She instructed the guards to make sure that nothing happened to Mel and to keep all three of them fed and hydrated until she and Roan returned.

At the top of the cliff the pack of wolves was feasting off the body of the other that Roan hit with his arrows. He sent another three arrows at the pack, hitting two and missing the third; but that was okay because Clarke got that one with one of her knives, slowing it down enough for Roan to kill it off. They quickly gutted the wolves and took them to the edge of the cliff, to the side of where the mini-camp was and threw them down. It was unlikely, but they hoped the other three would have the initiative to try to skin them and start drying out the meat.

They didn’t need to walk far to see that Mel was correct. In fact it was a miracle that she was able to walk away. The station was broken up into so many pieces, the occasional human limb left lying around. If there had been any survivors the wolves would have picked them off. Mel was lucky that she fell down that cliff edge and kept the wolves away. Roan and Clarke quickly made their way back to the others.

Seeing that they were correct and that nothing had been done to the wolves Clarke and Roan got to work on the skinning and drying. Even though the pelts were not ready for use, Clarke wrapped one around Mel who would otherwise freeze once she moved away from the fire.

After some lunch, Clarke talked Roan into carrying Mel on his back while she and the two guards carried the wolf pelts and as much of the meat as they could. They crossed the other side of the valley ready to climb the small slippery cliff into Trikru territory.

“We can’t climb up there, especially while carrying someone in the dark” Clarke declared. “We shall have to camp here for the night and can set off at first light. With luck we’ll reach Alpha by dusk.” What she didn’t say is that she and Roan wouldn’t be going in with them.

Roan carried Mel up the cliff, most nimbly, while the others lumbered their way up. Once at the top, Clarke offered to carry Mel to give Roan a break, embarrassing the guards enough to make them offer instead. They each carried her for about half an hour before they gave up and let Clarke carry her for a while before they broke for some lunch. Roan carried her again after lunch. They stopped when they could clearly see the station in the distance.

Clarke shared out the meat and pelts giving Mel a pelt and the guards most of the meat. She and Roan then pointed out that they were leaving them and going back to their own camp. When the guards reached for their guns to try to stop them they realised they were unarmed. 

“You lost yours when we were going down that cliff” Clarke shouted at one; then looked at the other and said “no idea when you lost yours. No idea how you’re going to explain it to the Chancellor, good luck with that, maybe the meat will sweeten her disposition a bit. Bye guys!”

Clarke and Roan walked off in the opposite direction of their camp, knowing they would have to double back on themselves. They ended up walking through the night and reached their home just as dawn was breaking.

“Despite the freezing cold, it is so nice to feel clean again” Clarke said in the lake with Raven and the other girls.

“It’s good to have you back, and with three wolf pelts” laughed Zoe.

At breakfast, Raven and Miller said that two guards were sent to follow them. Fortunately they were about as surreptitious as the proverbial bull in a china shop so they double backed on them leading them back almost to the Alpha station before they hid in a cave that Miller found until the middle of the night when they took the chance of leaving then.

“I decided it wasn’t worth going back if that was the way they were going to behave. Before we left I warned Sinclair that I might not return and he said I should do whatever I was happier with” Raven said.

“I told my dad that I was definitely not going back, but I gave him directions on how to get here. Yesterday, Bellamy and Harper were out hunting and guess who they found. Surprise!”

Sinclair and David Miller exited the cave.

“We didn’t like the way the Exodus Charter was being enacted” said Miller senior.

“I liked the idea of starting from scratch, making things from the very beginning” Sinclair said. “So we decided to join you. We brought some tech supplies; another tablet and a couple of transmitters amongst other stuff. Hope that is okay?”

“Did you bring another ‘scope’ that I could have?” Roan asked, hesitating over the unfamiliar word. On being given a nod from David Miller who began rummaging through his bag, Roan continued “We are not such a small team now, we will have to move as soon as spring arrives” Roan said and Clarke warmed at the use of the word ‘we’. “How good are you with tech?”

Sinclair and Raven looked at each other and laughed. “There is no one in the whole world who’s better at tech than those two, why?” Clarke asked.

“I know of an island that is guarded by tech the like of which I have never seen before. If you can master it, I think it would be the perfect place for us to set up home” Roan said.

A quick look around showed that they were all interested.

“When do we leave?” Clarke asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Abby being Abby, more people to join Clarke, and a new location to aim for. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this update.
> 
> Stay safe.


	6. Earth - The Timekeeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time moves on as our kru prepare to move to their new home, with a few surprises along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was erroneously posted earlier as chapter 5. I hope it all makes sense now and I am sorry for the confusion caused. If you think you might have missed the real chapter 5 you should read that now or this one won't make sense to you.

Roan spent the winter teaching his small kru all about life on the ground, how to speak Trig and why it was forbidden to carry and use guns.

“We don’t know how to fight or defend ourselves without them” David Miller said. “I brought two shock batons with me but they would not help against a group attack.”

“I agree” said Clarke. “We should be spending some time learning how to use swords and unarmed combat, but we have some guns and ammo we found that we haven’t used, as well as the two handguns we lifted from the Arc guards, and until we are proficient in other defence means at least those who know how to use a gun safely should carry one when we are on the move. David, you should check them over and keep them safe until we leave for the island: Harper was looking after them before but you are clearly the best candidate for that job. We are not part of the kongeda so we don’t have to follow their laws; but we will not flaunt or let it be known that we have guns unless it becomes necessary to use one for defence. Raven, is there any way we can melt down some of the guns to make decent swords or knives?”

Raven thought for a while before she finally admitted “I can melt them down but only into lumps of metal; I can’t smith them with what we have.”

“Is the metal a strong metal?” Roan asked. “If you think they would make strong swords then once they are melted down I can take it to a smith to negotiate the making of some swords and knives.”

It was Raven who pointed out that the metal was relatively light but disproportionately strong and asked if the smith would make items with different specifications.

“What are you thinking about Reyes?” Sinclair asked, not sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

“Throwing stars” was Raven’s response.

David Miller was impressed but “I think we should wait to make those until we are in a position to make them ourselves. You don’t want to give the design of a weapon to someone who could one day use it against you.”

Roan looked at the elder and nodded his head in agreement. If ‘throwing stars’ were likely to be a useful weapon, they definitely did not want to give the design to potential future enemies.

So Raven, with the help of Jasper, melted down all the guns that David Miller said were defective, and about half of the good ones. Jasper was able to use some of the metal to make some fine items, a few scalpels for Clarke, some skewers that could help when cooking over the fire or be hidden in braids and used as a weapon (Clarke took great pride in pointing out where to stab someone with one to either maim or kill). Roan took the lumps of metal to a smith who he knew would welcome the work in the quiet winter months. It did mean that they had to give up some of their fish as an advance payment, but no one was worried about that since fish seemed to be something that they were now able to catch in abundance (the removal of the large serpent no doubt meant that the fish populations were now able to grow).

No one, except Roan, liked Clarke’s continued insistence that everyone should bathe regularly, although she did agree that it could be every third day while the lake water was so cold. 

Upscaling their main building plan meant that they were able to make one much larger house with a central area heated by an indoor fire that was kept going all the time. Everyone took turns in staying up to make sure it was fed, yet safe, during the night so no one froze as they slept. Private areas were partitioned around the central communal area of the house although most people elected to share spaces for comfort and body heat but so far, curtesy of the lesson taught by Finn Clarke was sure, no one had paired off. It therefore shocked Clarke that Raven, of all people, was the one to want to mix up the status quo.

“What do you think of Bellamy?” Raven asked Clarke out of the blue.

“He seems okay now he’s not being an asshole and has older, wiser and, most importantly, stronger men to keep him in check” Clarke replied. “Why?”

“I like his smile” Raven shrugged. “I don’t know what he was like when you first came down, but like you said, he seems okay now.” Raven gave a bit more thought before continuing: “I miss not having someone special in my life and I like the fact that he is not a young kid, but nor a fully grown up adult. I don’t know if it can become something real but of all the available choices he seems to be the one best suited for me. So what do you think?”

Clarke thought for a moment before she responded. “I see what you mean about his smile, but I see the sadness when he thinks of Octavia. He obviously loves her beyond what is rational what with shooting Jaha so he could come down here to protect her, and he probably had to sacrifice so much for her while they were growing up, even when he was a young kid himself, and he doesn’t resent her at all for it. Bellamy clearly has the ability to love deeply and I’m worried about you hurting him, as much as I am about him hurting you.” Clarke paused to give herself time to think of what she really wanted to say. “I think that if you do decide to pursue something with him you have to both be totally honest with each other so if it did fall apart there’s no feelings of betrayal between you.”

Raven thought about Clarke’s advice and agreed to proceed with caution “but also with 100% honesty” she winked and went to look for her quarry.

Roan returned much later than expected from what was to be his final visit with the smith to collect some knives with a very shifty look on his face.

“What have you done, Roan?” Clarke asked.

Roan looked thoughtful before he opened his mouth to speak then snapping it shut again. He clearly didn’t know how to respond to Clarke’s question and the curious looks he was getting from everyone else around. With a shrug Roan called out “come on out here” to some people in the woods.

The kru turned as one to see four people, four familiar looking people laden with bags exit the cover of the woods and walk towards the central house.

“Oh my goodness, Jackson, Mel?” Clarke asked. “What are you doing here?” 

The man that Clarke recognised as Eric Jackson, the doctor training under her mom before she, Clarke, was arrested and put in prison, turned to Clarke and said “Clarke, it really is you, thank goodness. We thought that we were all that was left, but Mel said she thought you would survive and then she spotted and recognised Roan. 

“We were out, wanting to get away from Camp Jaha for a bit; you know, actually see and touch some of the forest we were surrounded by instead of the ring-fenced metal prison we were in. We were within the sight of the Arc the whole time and yet, when we returned, everyone was gone. It was like the Marie Celeste but with gas canisters left lying around.”

“Mounen” Roan opined. “There is no one else it could be. I’m sorry, I don’t know for sure what this means for your people but none of ours have ever returned from the mountain once they were taken.”

The people who were once part of the Arc all looked sad, and shocked.

“I am so very sorry” Clarke said. “Come, please sit and let me get you some refreshments. We should all talk about what this means for us and what we should do.” 

They all entered the main house while Fox prepared some tea and Raven and Bellamy moved some peoples’ bedding and personal items around so that there was somewhere for the four newcomers to sleep, and they placed the belongings they brought with them by the house door.

“If they have gas canisters, guns and acid fog we know that they are too strong for us to try to mount a rescue mission” Clarke said pessimistically.

“I think that even if we could mount a rescue mission it would probably be fruitless” Roan offered. “I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I think we should prepare to leave as soon as possible now that there are 18 of us. It will be harder for us to navigate our way through the land with so many and we need to be on the island as soon as possible. At least there will be not so many people about in winter.”

Clarke looked at all her crew mates, ignoring the four new members for the time being, and raised a questioning brow.

“I have no problem with us leaving as soon as we’ve packed up” Sinclair said.

“It won’t take any time at all to dismantle the still” offered Jasper.

“I think we should dismantle what we’re not taking to put in the cave or the bunker so that in the unlikely event we need to we can retrieve it later” Raven said.

It was clear; they were going to pack up and be ready for moving as soon as they could.

“Okay we spend two more nights here. Monty, Jasper and Zoe, you sort the food so that we have plenty of rations for our journey” Clarke suggested. “Roan, Bellamy and Sterling, you fish, hunt and gather whatever you can that we might be able to eat for the next couple of days and for drying, staying as close to our base as you can. Work with the others to make sure that there is enough for all of us for however long it will take to get to the island, and to give us a bit of wiggle room for when we arrive. Harper, David and Murphy, you take what you can to the bunker for storage. Nate and Kyle, you go back to the Arc and see what else you can find that we’ll find useful – more plates and cups, blankets, rations. Mel and Gina, you can help me sort out a bag of clothes for everyone and collecting leaves to make the floor more comfortable to sleep on. Jackson, you’re in charge of Medical, I’ll show you what I have; it will all have to fit into two bags, three at most so you may need to prioritise. Raven and Sinclair, you know that you’re in charge of sorting what tech to take. Everyone will carry two bags: one with personal items – two sets of clothes and spare boots, although we will need to be wearing a lot to stop us from freezing, eating utensils, water bottle, rations for a couple of days, or more; and the other with either equipment or food. We also all have to carry a weapon or two and our own bedding which should be as substantial as we can carry, a flash light and some cable in our pockets: in fact if you have a pocket, make sure there’s something useful in it; if you can tie something to one of your bags, do so; ask Jackson or Sinclair if you want ideas” Clarke directed everyone. “When we dismantle the house, we can take the parachute material to make a crude tent or two. We’ll also need our alarm system. I guess this is going to be a long hard hike, but if we want to have a future where we can thrive, we have to put in the investment.”

“We need to prepare to be moving for about one lunar cycle” Roan said. “If we are lucky it may be a little less, but not much.”

“There you have it, everyone. We need to make sure we have enough food to last us all a month because we cannot be sure that we will be able to find much en route. I hope there will be a good water source on the island because by the time we get there we’ll all be incredibly ripe.”

The privacy dividers were taken down so that they could be taken to the bunker for storage that day. 

A bag was packed for everyone, including Roan who rose a haughty brow at being expected to wear skaikru clothes, but because they didn’t have much that was big enough for him there was not so much to pack for him, with everyone else receiving two sets of clothes (but three sets of socks and underwear), and spare boots. It meant that some clothes would have to be left in the bunker to be collected if needed later but they couldn’t carry everything. 

The dried food was divided up and packed into eight bags. They would leave nothing of that behind since they were not 100% sure they had enough for everyone, including the four new people, to last a month of hard hiking. One of the large water containers was filled with moonshine and put in a bag that Roan would be given to carry since they thought he was probably the only one strong enough to carry that and hike for the day. Roan had assured them that they would only need to make sure everyone had a small water bottle or flask that they would be able to fill up regularly.

One of the bags was set aside to hold all the parachute material; another, the alarm system. Roan suggested that they should not have a fire going on the clear nights and days longer than necessary since it would give away their position to any would be thieves and they should avoid trouble if they could. It did mean that they would have to all sleep huddled up together except for the person on watch – which Roan insisted they had to have even with the alarms; but he did think one skilled armed guard or two lesser skilled armed guards should be sufficient to supplement the alarm. The four newbies were exempt from the watch since they appeared to not have the physical stamina that would be required, nor the combat skills, something that would have to be rectified once they were settled.

Jackson took a quiet moment after supper, but before settling down to sleep to talk to Clarke.

“How have you been, Clarke?” was his opening.

“I’ve been good, happy” Clarke replied. “You? How was it when you landed?”

Jackson took a few moments to think. “Honestly, at first it was so exciting, we were on Earth. Then reality settled in and we might as well have stayed in space – if it wasn’t for the lack of oxygen. The same rules, confinement, shortages. There was nothing different except what we saw outside. What happened with you, really? Abby just said that you had been corrupted by the criminals you were sent down with and then the savage grounders got to you.”

Clarke thought that it was typical of her mom to be so judgemental of others while seeing no fault in herself.

“When we landed everyone was so excited. They all wanted to take a break from being controlled like they were on the Arc, and who could blame them? They had no idea why we were sent down when we were, just that, as explained by our former Chancellor, we were expendable. And, by the way, what happened to Jaha and how did my mother become the Chancellor?”

“When it was decided to bring all the stations down, someone had to stay on the ring to manually disengage them. Jaha was the one who did it, which is why Camp Jaha was named after him. Abby was the next senior Council Member and so received the pin pro tem. She was thinking of calling an election shortly since she found it hard to be Chancellor as well as Chief Medical Officer” Jackson explained. “So your story …” he encouraged.

“I could see that they were moving into disorganised chaos. We had no supplies and no way of getting any. We were sent down as test rats to die one way or another and I decided not to. I tried to talk to the others but being the Princess gained me no respect so I told everyone what I was going to do and left them to make their own choices about how to proceed. I grabbed some stuff from the ship that I thought might be useful and set off to find water. I was able to find some nuts and berries to eat so I had time to sort out what to do on the food front. I was lucky that I walked in the direction that took me away from danger.

“You must remember that our parents’ station meant that most of the delinquents loathed Wells and me so there was nothing we could do to get them to listen to us. All our attempts were met with derision. It wouldn’t have surprised me if it had descended into violence against us: it almost certainly would have at some point. Wells wanted to make a start for Mt Weather. I thought that was nothing more than a one hundred year old pipe dream so ignored it and Wells and went off alone. Wells died trying to reach Mt Weather, I survived.

“I wasn’t here long when seven of the others decided to join me. It was really nice. I wasn’t so overwhelmed with too many people after so long in solitary, but neither was I alone. We learned to set traps, to fish, what vegetation was edible, to dry food to set aside for Winter, basic survival; and then Raven came down. It was nice to have someone who could help improve our home building skills but she unwittingly brought some tension into the camp: Finn and Raven had been in a relationship on the Arc but Finn assumed that he would never see Raven again and took up with Fox. It wasn’t good for a while. Then we were hit by the acid fog, which we now know is sent from Mt Weather, and lost Finn and Charlotte. I couldn’t save them and ended up having to put Finn out of his misery. That caused some tension between Raven and me. We’re good now.

“Soon after that we found four others, Bellamy, Nate Miller, Murphy and Sterling and they told us what happened to the rest of the main group. Then Roan turned up and adopted us and we tried to help you. My mother was not impressed and scoffed at everything Roan tried to advise her and was determined to keep me in your camp despite my desire to leave. We found Mel and then when Roan and I got back home we discovered that Miller Snr and Sinclair found us.

“Just before you arrived, our general practice was that we do all chores - hunting, fishing, gathering food or firewood, home improvements, food and fur prep, that sort of thing in the morning. In the afternoon we would do something useful but fun: we learned to swim, target practice, combat training – Roan is an excellent teacher, so patient, and trying to learn trig, the language of the Trikru, the people whose land this is. The evenings are spent round the fire telling stories, playing games, usually with the aid of moonshine and relaxing. I can’t speak for the others, but I have enjoyed my life, it feels real and although it is quite narrow, I haven’t felt confined at all.

“I accept that we have to move: this is someone else’s territory and as we grow and use more of their resources we could draw more interest from them; not to mention the potential threat from Mt Weather; but I hope that once we get to our new home I can be as happy there as I have been here.”

Clarke’s words were heard by more than just Jackson: Roan and Bellamy heard them too, and both were touched for different reasons. Bellamy was surprised that Clarke didn’t talk about his lead role in the disorganised chaos when they first landed, or mention the fact that he shot the Chancellor to get on board the drop ship. Roan was gratified that Clarke talked about him as if no-one could think that he was anything other than part of her kru; nor did she say anything about the harshness of the response of the grounders to their presence, there was no judgement or condemnation about it, just acceptance. Jackson was pondering the importance of the words ‘fun’, ‘relaxing’ and ‘happy’ and looked forward to being able to experience them for himself.

Their final night in what had been a relatively safe and happy home was decidedly melancholy.

This time it was Gina who decided to question one of her new people: she chose Roan.

“Roan, I guess you have probably told your story to the others, but would you mind telling us why you decided to join up with a bunch of people who fell from the sky?”

Miller shook his head in exasperation since he thought it was completely obvious why Roan decided to join them. Raven, Zoe, Fox and Harper all shared smirks of understanding since they, too, thought it obvious. In fact the only one of the long and mid standing of the group who looked puzzled and thought it a reasonable question was Bellamy. 

Roan looked around his people and saw what they all thought and smiled: just as he hoped, his reason was known and accepted and he was still welcome.

“I won’t repeat the whole story, suffice to say that I was born as Crown Prince of Azgeda, the Ice Nation, raised to be the future leader of our clan; and for reasons that were really outside my control I was banished. The scars on my face identify me as a banished Azgedan prince. I am officially clanless. Yet to the other clans they still see me as Azgeda and it is the most hated clan in the kongeda. For years I have been wandering alone, eeking out a living. Sometimes able to talk to people, usually the unsavoury type, but never belonging. It was a relatively peaceful, but lonely life and always on the edge. When some people fell from the sky I wondered if I might belong with them so I set out to find them.

“I first came across a fairly undisciplined bunch of goufa. I thought that I could help them, lead them. They needed someone who knew what they were doing to lead them. But I could see that the leader would not give up his control to me and that the only way I could get them to accept me as their leader would be to kill him and some of his followers. Since I didn’t want to be responsible for the loss of life, nor want to lead people who would fear me rather than respect me I decided to leave them alone and offer nothing but my silent good wishes knowing that they were probably doomed.

“There had been some talk of a second, smaller group and I decided to seek and check them out. They too were nought but a bunch of goufa but they were more disciplined, respectful of their environment, and productive. They didn’t seem to need me to lead them, but I hoped they would want me to join them, or at least accept me because I could still be useful to them. I was thinking about the best way to approach them. As far as I could tell they didn’t know that there were other people living on the ground and I didn’t want to scare them. My chance came when I realised that a small group from the original main group was trying to find them.

“I was about to approach the four young men who did know about others living here, although I didn’t expect them to be welcoming to me, when I heard others approaching. I waited. In the meantime the four men took a break and fell asleep. They were brought here and they told Clarke and her people about the clans, or what they knew from their friend Lincoln of Trikru. I was hiding and trying to work out the best way to approach and then your ships fell from the sky. I just walked into the camp and introduced myself. I offered to help and have stayed ever since.”

“Wow, so you and Clarke hadn’t known each other long when you found me?” Mel said. “That is so strange since you seemed so close even then.”

With a little bit of embarrassment Clarke entered the conversation “Yes, well, I was surprised at how well Roan and I seemed to understand each other even then. Roan helps, guides and is part of us now. Although we have not formalised leadership, I think I can honestly say that we follow what Roan says.”

“No you don’t” Roan said. “You take what I advise and you expand upon it, thinking through the details. I may be one your most senior advisors, but you are our leader.”

“Clarke’s right” Raven interjected. “Actually you both are. Roan is our long term leader, Clarke is our day to day detailed leader. I suppose you are our joint leaders; we need both of you.

Roan looked at Clarke and raised a brow: she knew what he was asking.

Clarke looked at Roan and smiled her acceptance.

Murphy was watching the interplay and asked “Any dissenters from the idea that Roan and Clarke be formally declared our joint leaders?”

There was some snorts of laughter, even Bellamy smiled at the idea, as no-one objected.

“I, John Murphy, do hereby declare that Clarke and Roan are our joint leaders. We need to come up with a proper name for our clan since Skaikru covers all those who fell from the sky and not Roan.”

“Roarke’skru!” declared Zoe and Fox together.

“Oh yes, we’re Roarke’skru” Harper agreed.

Jasper raised his moonshine and stood up: “Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your drink to all the misfits of Roarke’skru!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I hope that all is now clear. I hope you forgive the stupid blunder I made.
> 
> Roarke'skru could be pronounced a number of ways - 'Ro Arcs kru' being one, but I thought that might sound a bit like a link to the Arc rather than Clarke so I decided to go for 'Roar kscrew' as in rhymes with 'Corkscrew'! 
> 
> However you are celebrating the festive season, I hope it is merry, safe and bright for you.


	7. Earth - The Deceiver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief look at what's happening with the people of Camp Jaha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes we know that most of the people of Camp Jaha were taken to Mt Weather. This chapter begins a little before that auspicious event.
> 
> I have to warn you that I don't like canon Abby at all and if you haven't read my other stories you might not know that I usually write her as I think of her. If you do like Abby, then sorry. Also if you are a Kabby shipper, you might not like this.
> 
> Ah well, if there is anyone left still reading, I hope you enjoy.

Acting Chancellor Dr Abby Griffin was devastated when the guards returned to Camp Jaha without her baby girl. Yes it was good that they found another survivor, but she wanted her daughter with her. Clarke needed to be with her people where she would be safe and protected and not running around with one of the savages.

The taste of the fresh, real meat was delicious, even though it probably wasn’t cooked properly since the guards and Mel said that the savage made the wolf meat taste good when he cooked it over their open fire. The kitchen staff, the guards who talked with him, and Mel said that the savage with Clarke seemed to be nice enough, and that clearly Clarke was one in charge, but Abby knew that it would be just like Clarke to take some low life under her wing to protect him.

No, there was no way Clarke could be as happy and safe outside of Camp Jaha as she would be inside. There had to be a way to get her daughter back.

“I think that you need to give her time to find her own way back” Marcus Kane advised Abby when she asked about sending guards out to retrieve Clarke. “They don’t know their way around, but Clarke clearly does, and she has the assistance of one of the locals. If we go out without a real plan we run the risk of alienating the locals and that could come back later to bite us in the ass.”

“But what if she doesn’t find her way back? What if she gets hurt, or worse?” Abby asked.

“We sent them down here as a test run thinking that they would all probably die and just buy us a little more time. You had to know that the chances were that Clarke was lost to you as soon as she was locked up” Kane was philosophical as he shrugged. “You should just be glad that she’s still alive when she should already be dead.”

“I thought you would understand how I feel given that you floated CeCe and you were supposed to love her” Abby was bitchy.

“I did love CeCe” Kane was calm, not letting his irritation show; “but the laws of the Arc left no room for mercy or understanding. I did my duty and was grateful for the time that we had together, just as you did your duty when you informed the Council of Jake’s plan and Clarke’s knowledge. It’s too late for you to try to take it back and regain your daughter; just as if CeCe had somehow managed to get to Earth, it would be too late for me to get her back. They were both, in effect, killed by the ones they loved so accept it and move on to leading your people, Chancellor.”

Abby was shocked by Kane’s harsh reminder of her duty to the survivors who were relying on her to keep them safe. Perhaps Kane was right and that once Clarke had more time to appreciate the security that would come from being back with her people, instead of out freezing, and starving in the wilderness, she would return of her own volition. It didn’t dawn on Abby until much later that Clarke did not look like she was either freezing or starving, or that she surely had the knowledge to make sure that she did neither even if by proxy through Roan.

The cold was colder than anything Abby had ever felt before. She remembered the savage telling her that they needed warmer clothes and to find a way to heat their home: she had scoffed at him. And they were still hungry. Success from hunting had become very rare and her people were losing weight; weight they could not afford to lose. And the people were getting restless.

Other than the hunters (guards really) no-one was allowed outside of their camp walls. Abby decreed, and the Council, what there was of it, agreed that it was too dangerous to allow the general populace to wander at will with the risk of attack or of getting lost. That decree caused a little bit of rebellion.

Wick, the senior engineer despite his relative youth with the loss of Thelonious and Sinclair, was in charge of keeping their electric fence secure. That did mean that when he and his friends wanted to escape the prison that was Camp Jaha he was able to get out through a small break in the electrification. 

Kyle Wick had stuck up a friendship with Gina Martin. He liked her feisty, irreverent ways and hoped that a relationship could develop between them. Since Gina included her friends Mel and Jacks (Eric Jackson) he assumed that he had been placed very firmly in the friend zone. He didn’t know that Gina thought that he was interested in Mel.

One clear, fresh winter’s day the four had decided they were going to escape the confines of the camp and explore the forest a little. They were all off work for the day so they wrapped up in all the clothes they could don and took what rations they were able to sneak and went out through the fence.

They managed to build a small fire to keep them warm and Mel told them the story of her fall and rescue from the cliff side.

“It doesn’t sound like he was a savage” Gina said.

“He was always kind and gentle with me” Mel affirmed.

“I never thought that Clarke was the sort to get taken in” Jacks added. “She always struck me as having a good head on her shoulders. Do you think they’re all alright?”

“Apparently there’s ten with Clarke and they seemed to know what they were doing” Kyle said. “She and her grounder tried to tell people how to go on but no one wanted to listen. I have to say that Raven and Clarke both looked strong and healthy. Rae said that Nate and a few others had literally just joined their group from the other group who hadn’t been looking after themselves as well as they had.”

“Clarke was very strong” Mel agreed. “Not as strong as Roan, but he is twice her size.”

“Perhaps we should try to find them” Gina suggested. “They did seem to be happier than we are.”

“How would we even start?” Jacks asked.

“Actually, I have an idea” Kyle said. “They had a radio and I know that Sinc took some tablets with him. I should be able to set something up to connect with them but without it being obvious what we’re intending just in case I get caught” he suggested.

“I’m in” said Gina.

“Okay” agreed Jacks.

“I don’t know” Mel said. “What will happen to us if you do get caught?”

“Nothing will happen to you if I get caught” Kyle tried to reassure Mel while holding onto his patience. “I’m the one who will probably get shock lashed because they can’t risk losing their senior and only fully trained engineer since they have effectively got rid of the others: and I’m sure Jacks will be able to treat me afterwards.”

Very hesitantly Mel gave a nod of agreement.

Back at Camp Jaha there was a silent attack. All the guards on lookout were shot with tranquilising darts. The residents began to scream. People, idiotically, rushed out from the fallen Arc to be met with gas canisters giving off red smoke, causing them all to sleep; and men in hazmat suits and gas masks carrying the rifles with the darts walked through the chaos. 

Before the four escapees began their walk back to the camp, four trucks had pulled up to the camp and all the sleeping residents were loaded on the truck beds and taken to their new home.

Wandering around Jackson, Gina, Mel and Kyle couldn’t believe what they were seeing: or more to the point, what they were not seeing. Everyone had gone.

“Let’s look at what we can find on the security cameras” Kyle said as they went to the security room.

They didn’t have full security coverage, but they did have enough to see that there was a gas attack and that everyone was taken by people in suits.

“Something that Clarke warned us about” Kyle muttered.

“Heya” a deep voice called. “Is there anyone still here?”

The four went out to see who could be calling.

“Roan!” Mel said recognising the tall grounder. “It’s Clarke’s Roan.” 

Mel introduced the other three people to Roan and Gina explained what happened. Roan explained that he saw the trucks move away and knew that it had to be the mountain men. “You need to quickly gather everything you can carry that might be useful and leave with me. They could come back for you if they know you are here unprotected.”

As well as their personal belongings, the four gathered what they could: Jacks collected medical supplies; Kyle took two-way radios, tablets, a welding torch and other tools; Gina gathered blankets and told Mel to collect rations. They left Roan to wander at will and to pick up anything that he thought they might need: he decided to help carry blankets.

Abby woke to find herself wearing nothing but white – she hated wearing white except for when she was in her medical centre. She was locked in a clean, white single cell. From what Clarke said she didn’t think that it would be the sort of place the savages would have, but she could be wrong. 

As she stared through the window in the door, Abby recognised another face through the window in the door opposite hers – Major Byrne.

Abby banged on the door to try to attract the attention of someone who could explain what was going on, why they were made unconscious and taken from their camp and why they were locked up.

A young woman came to Abby’s door and did something that Abby couldn’t see, but she heard the woman speak.

“Please, there is no need for you to be alarmed. We will release you once you have cleared our quarantine. You and your people are now safe here in Mt Weather. Please just be patient and we will clear you for release soon.”

‘So’ Abby thought, ‘there are people in Mt Weather who take others. Will we have to mix with the savages already taken? Will we be kept inside and not allowed out? But does it matter as long as we are all safe from the savages? But what about Clarke? Will I get the chance to be re-united with my baby girl?’ 

While Abby was thinking about those and other questions, Major Byrne was released from her quarantine and led to join the rest of the Arkers who were cleared. She found Marcus Kane.

“Do you know what’s going on?” the Major asked.

“No, all we are being told is that we are now safe in Mt Weather and that we will be spoken to once all our people have cleared quarantine. We’ve not seen anyone else other than guards and medics. There’s no sign of the locals that were taken, but perhaps they are with the rest of the Mt Weather population” Marcus said, talking quietly so as not to alert anyone listening that they know that the survivors of the Earth had already told them that their people were taken, hundreds each year, and were never seen again. Marcus couldn’t imagine that they stayed in the mountain and not returned to their families by choice. “If questioned, don’t let on that we know about the locals being taken” he advised. “Let’s see how much they volunteer.”

Major Byrne had always admired Kane’s ethics: he might not agree with, or even like many of the Arc’s laws but he upheld them without favour. Marcus Kane was a man that Major Byrne felt she could trust so she decided to follow his advice and play dumb.

President Wallace welcomed the people of the Arc to their new home in the safety of Mt Weather. “Here you will all be able to find prosperity and a new purpose” Dante said. “You are lucky, you can breathe the air outside, we cannot. Perhaps your good doctor can work with our medics to learn why that is the case and see if we can find a solution that will allow us all to take our rightful place on the surface. Until we can properly integrate you all, we have assigned bunks to you. I know that is not ideal, but as we get to know you and discover where you will be happiest we can assign more appropriate quarters.”

Marcus Kane was very suspicious of everything he heard and saw. The main thing that made him suspicious was the fact that they were never allowed outside. Whenever it was hinted at they were politely turned away and distracted. The map they were given to allow them to find their way around showed no exits, emergency or otherwise. In effect they were prisoners. He also suspected that their conversations were being monitored.

“We need to find a way out of here” Major Byrne whispered to Kane. “A few too many of us are being ‘invited’ to help out hosts in medical and from what they say about their experience they are not just taking samples anymore, they’re taking ever increasing donations.”

Kane led Byrne away to a quiet corner, put his arms around her and whispered in her ear “Help me make it look like we are getting close” as Byrne wrapped her arms around Kane in a lover-like pose.

Kane loosed Byrne’s hair so that it could be used to hide their faces from who so ever might be watching. Nuzzling into her face, Kane whispered “I think the only way out could be through the vents. From something Abby said, there is a medical waste shute and there must be other exits. We all came in through medical so that has to have the best odds of finding a way out.”

“I agree. No one else seems at all perturbed by what’s happening. When asked about others’ surviving, people were just told that the savages must have killed off any who survived the Arc fall because they had been unable to trace any more people. I don’t buy it. There are people missing who we know were alive and well in Camp Jaha who are not here” Byrne said.

“You’re right, there are. What’s worse is that Abby hasn’t even mentioned them, she’s too busy being caught up in how civilised it is in here and just seems to have forgotten anyone who isn’t” Kane was bitter about his former friend and colleague. “I’ll talk to her this evening to try to get something from her that we can use, or at least to make her think some more: she has to be concerned about Clarke at least, right?”

Byrne smiled softly at Kane, lifted her hand to stroke his face and said “You’re a good man to be so concerned about your friend’s daughter” and Byrne moved back and said to the person behind Kane, “May we help you?”

The young guard looked sheepish as he took in the older couple. He didn’t want to disturb their probably rare moment of privacy since he knew they were not sharing quarters, but he did have to deliver his message. “I am sorry for interrupting, but the President has asked if Mr Kane would like to join him and Dr Griffin to discuss next steps with integrating you with our people.”

Kane studied Abby carefully and was disappointed. Abby looked completely and utterly content.

“President Wallace” Kane decided to get in early with a request, one with which there should be no reason for Abby to disagree. “I have noticed that some of our people are still missing and I would like to go out with a few people to search for them. And, if the people did leave Camp Jaha for any reason, maybe to search for us, I would like to leave a notice telling our people to come to Mt Weather where they will be welcome and protected. I’m sure Abby would like to leave a way whereby it makes it possible for her to be re-united with Clarke.”

Abby briefly looked like she wanted to agree with Kane and support his idea but a quick look at President Wallace’s regretful shake of his head stopped her.

“I am sorry to have to disappoint you but this facility is not meant for a large population and we are just about at our capacity” President Wallace started to explain. “Until we are able to take our place on the surface we cannot take more people. With the help of Dr Griffin we are closer to that goal then we ever were before. Once we are able to take control of the savages that currently roam over our lands we can find the rest of your people and help them take their place with us. We will need as many as we can to establish control and maintain peace; and it will be useful to have someone who has lived with the savages to help us select those who could be useful to us and take, I suppose, mid-level man management roles.”

Kane saw that Abby was nodding her head enthusiastically and pondered on the best way forward. He understood the subtext of what the President was saying and he was terrified for the local populations. “I see your point; liaison officers would be very useful. How many people are living on the outside, do you know? I think Clarke said that there was thousands, across a number of clans.”

“We don’t know how many exactly, we can only really go by the numbers that live in the surrounding areas, but we doubt that it could be many thousands, a few, possibly; but with our weapons they would stand no chance of defeating us” the President looked at Kane disappointed.

“No, no, that wasn’t my concern” Kane tried to reassure. “I have no doubt that the use of modern weapons could easily win over the use of spears and bows and arrows. I was thinking more of relying on just the few Arkers that we know survived to be able to learn about all the peoples; especially given that we don’t know how long they will survive out there without our protection with no real weapons, nor diplomatic experience.”

“He’s right” Abby spoke for the first time since Kane entered the room. “I remember Clarke said that she led a group of about ten and that a group of twenty and gone to live with people by the water. That’s only 30 out of the original 100 and we can’t be sure of their survival.”

“But they were young delinquents who were no doubt causing all sorts of mayhem. I understand that your Clarke broke away from the main group and formed her own group of orderly, law abiding young people who had grown and learned from their youthful mistakes; but I don’t think you can assume the same of the others. What do you suggest?” President Wallace asked.

“I think Kane should take a small group to try to forge bonds, be our spy” Abby said calmly.

“What? No!” Kane hoped he was convincing. “I agree that it would be helpful to have people on the outside, but not for me to go out now, at least wait until spring!”

President Wallace appeared to think carefully before he pronounced his decision.

“I am sorry, Kane, but your previous role is not needed here. We will need some time to work out where you will best fit with us; although I have no doubt that once we are on the surface you could, would make an excellent leader of a community: but until that time you will be bored with a lesser role. I think it would be good for you to go and try to interact with the savages and learn what you can from them.”

Kane looked at Abby and saw the same guilty defiance on her face as the day she faced Clarke in Camp Jaha and he closed in on himself a little. 

“Very well, I understand the logic. I don’t like it, but I do understand that we must do what is best for our people. I would like to request that Bernie, that is Major Byrne, be allowed to accompany me, though, and ask if you could give us a map with notes about the current occupants, as you know it, rations for a few days, water bottles and appropriate clothing so that we don’t die before we have the chance to do any good. We can’t have radios because they would likely be found and would only breed suspicion unless you have small ear pieces?”

President Wallace regretfully shook his head and said “Sorry but the ones we have only have a short range so they would be of no use. I agree that you and Major Byrne should go together. You talk to her and I shall arrange for the supplies you asked. Leave tomorrow.”

Kane looked at the President, then at Abby who continued with the guilty defiance, then back to the President and gave a resigned single nod of agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of deceiving going on there.
> 
> Back to Roarke'skru next chapter.
> 
> Good wishes to all for 2021. Please stay safe so that we can really celebrate the next new year.


	8. New Home - The Journey Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roarke'skru begin their journey to their new home on the island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although this chapter is back with Roarke'skru, we will eventually catch up with what is happening in Mt Weather, and with the other people of Earth. Praimfaya still happens and Clarke will still want to save as many as she can; but that's for later.

The large house was dismantled and the salvageable pieces placed in the cave. They might never be needed again but Clarke and Raven wanted to keep them intact so that if they ever came this way again the home could quickly and easily be reassembled; and they didn’t want to just destroy or abandon the home they had put so much work into making. It was clear that there was once a large camp at the site, but there was clearly no-one staying there any longer. 

Although the surviving five who first joined her, and Raven, were sad to leave the home they had come to love, none were as sad as Clarke. Clarke didn’t want to cheapen the contribution that the others had made to make the site a home, but it had been she who had looked for it, and first settled. The site had been her home first and foremost and she was sorry that the work that had gone into making it special to her had to be left behind. Clarke hoped that one day she would have the time and the materials to draw her time by the lake, showing how the group grew both in numbers and their personal growth.

Roan, naturally, took the lead with instructions to everyone to watch where they trod so as to keep the noise down, and to stay alert but to keep their guns hidden. Zoe was the most stealthy of the rest so she with her shorter stride making it easier for the others to follow in her footsteps followed Roan. Clarke and Harper brought up the rear to make sure that no-one was allowed to fall behind. 

Roan kept up a fairly brisk pace (although it wasn’t that brisk for him): it ensured that everyone stayed warm despite the cold temperatures, and that real progress was made every day.

Nothing seemed to happen the first two days: everyone’s spirits were high and they didn’t seem to come across any obstacles. Clarke, who observed Roan carefully when they took breaks for lunch and to set camp knew better: they were being watched again; or perhaps it was still.

“Can you tell if they’re just observing or are planning something?” Clarke asked Roan when she ambushed him returning to their camp from, presumably, relieving himself.

“So far it seems to be just observing. As long as we take nothing more than water I think it will stay that way for the time being. Tell Bellamy to keep a low profile” Roan was unsurprised at Clarke’s perception.

Clarke went round the troops letting them know that they were being watched but so far there was nothing untoward. Bellamy agreed to keep his hat on and his head down, as did the others who were from the original main camp (not that anyone was planning on removing their warm hats, anyway).

On the third day, they had their first problem. The area that Roan had planned for them to take their mid-day break was already occupied. There were only three people there but it was much better that they didn’t interact with others because it was obvious that most members of Roarke’skru were not from the coalition and it was likely that they would garner unwanted attention, and that could lead to nothing but trouble.

Mel hadn’t spotted that there were people ahead. She had just spotted that Roan had stopped walking, paying no attention to anyone else, and she thought that it was the ideal time to ‘accidently’ stumble into him so he could save her from falling. Mel’s stumble meant that she snapped a twig, alerting the strangers to their presence.

A knife was flying towards Mel.

Although Roan managed to push Mel sufficiently that the knife didn’t hit her in the chest, he couldn’t push her far enough away to avoid being struck. Mel screamed as the knife embedded itself into her arm.

Almost as one, those who carried guns went to pull them out.

“Put them away, dammit” Clarke hissed as she walked through the ranks. Bellamy hesitated a second too long for Clarke’s comfort and she snatched his bag out of his hands and threw it to the ground. “You know we can’t be seen carrying those things. Now, keep them hidden and prepare to use your other weapons. Be at the ready, but leave the talking to Roan.”

Luckily Roan had heard Clarke’s scolding but presumed that the other people, Sankru by the look of them, had not. Using trig, knowing that Clarke would be able to understand even though Mel would not, Roan told Clarke to take Mel and go back to where they filled their water canteens to clean and treat her wound.

Clarke did as requested, also leading the others away except for Harper and Murphy who Clarke quietly told to stay out of sight but to watch Roan’s back.

Luckily the sound of Mel’s cries covered the noise of Roarke’skru retreat.

“I was about to apologise for intruding and say that we would move elsewhere for our break when you attacked one of my women” Roan said in trig; somehow managing to sound both angry and bored.

The three could tell by looking at Roan that he was a fierce warrior and they were no more than average. It was possible that between the three of them that they would be able to beat him, but they knew it would not be without loss. The odds of them walking away with their lives was not good unless they could carry out some damage control.

“I did not hear you approach” the one who threw the knife said. “If you intended no harm why the silent approach?” he tried to throw the blame at Mel.

“Habit, you should understand that. She stumbled due to tiredness and hunger and you attacked her with a knife. My other woman had better be able to heal her or you will have to pay” Roan sounded menacing.

“We did not mean any harm” another of the trio said. “Please, accept this rabbit in apology. It will make a good meal for you.”

Roan took the rabbit and snorted. “It will barely make an acceptable meal for me let alone my women as well; but I know that throwing the knife was nothing more than reflex so I accept your gift and your apology.” Roan turned to walk away, seeing the other two watching his back. And it was a good job that they were because another knife was on its way towards Roan.

As soon as Roan saw that Murphy released one of his own knives, and Harper an arrow, Roan moved quickly to the side. His shoulder was grazed, but nothing more. Turning he saw that both Murphy and Harper had hit their targets and that there was one left alive. Roan threw his own knife to take care of the third.

“Harper, can you go catch the others up and tell them to come back here? Murphy, help me strip and dispose of the bodies” Roan instructed.

The two young people did as their leader requested.

They found a few good knives as they searched the bodies, as well as a good strong axe and some leather and fur. Roan lamented the lack of horses, but it was not that unusual.

The watcher noted that the retaliation came only after the knife was thrown at the splita’s back – a cowardly action with no honour deserving retaliation – and had no issue with how the situation was handled, except for the fact that he saw two of Skaikru get out a strange looking weapon that he had not seen before. They clearly only had two of them since the others had their swords, knives and bows at the ready, but he would need to make careful watch for them in the future. They didn’t appear to be anything more than metal clubs but he couldn’t think why they would use metal instead of wood. He would report to Anya as soon as the group crossed out of Trikru lands. He knew that Anya would be pleased that they had not raided Trikru lands for food, and had rid the land of three Sankru cowards.

Everyone else caught up with Roan and Murphy before they had time to finish digging graves.

“I thought you liked to burn your dead” Bellamy said.

“We do, and normally I would do that, but that takes a lot of wood and the fire would be seen for miles. The purpose of us travelling is to not use up Trikru resources; and to not draw attention to ourselves with a fire” Roan explained.

The watcher, as Roan knew they would, heard every word Roan said and accepted the departure from their usual ceremony: at least the splita didn’t leave the bodies to the indignity of being ravaged by animals.

Clarke had treated Mel’s wound: sterilisation and stitches. She warned Mel that she wanted to check it each morning and evening before it got too dark. 

Clarke then gave the Roan the indignity of insisting on checking over his wound. Just as Roan was about to object, Clarke raised an imperious brow and waited. With an indecently loud huff Roan disrobed so that Clarke could see that it was nought but a flesh wound requiring nothing more than a thorough cleaning and a protective dressing to keep it clean. 

When Roan was about to complain at the dressing Clarke quieted him with the words “The last thing we need is for you to get an infection so if that means I take extra precautions, tough.”

Roan submitted to Clarke’s ministration with nothing more than grumbles.

Meanwhile Zoe was talking to Raven: “Mel’s stumble wasn’t an accident. I don’t know if she wanted to let the other people know we were there or if she was trying to gain Roan’s attention, but it was definitely something.”

Raven looked over at Mel and saw that she was watching Roan and Clarke with a strange look on her face. “I think it was to get Roan. I’ll get Gina to have a word with her, warn her off.”

Raven didn’t need to say anything to Gina because Gina had already realised that Mel was trying to bark up the wrong tree, so to speak.

“Roan belongs with Clarke; Bellamy and Raven are giving it a go, as are Kyle and I; Jackson’s gay and if I read it right so is Nate Miller, and I think Harper and Monty have paired up. Try for one of the others, but leave everyone else alone” Gina was clear.

“I don’t know what you mean” Mel said. “There is no way that Roan and Clarke are a couple: they’re more like I think siblings would be; and Eric is certainly not gay.”

“Ask Roan if he belongs with Clarke. Clarke might not know it yet but he does and he will do nothing to put their future in jeopardy. Watch people and you will see that all I have said is true. You have to take care, Mel. At least wait until we get settled before trying anything. I don’t want you or anyone else to get hurt again due to a moment of carelessness” Gina warned, hoping that Mel would heed her words; but just in case, she decided to speak with Roan later.

Because of the delay at mid-day, it was already dark by the time they reached the spot that Roan wanted them to spend the night. Luckily they had a few flashlights so Jackson was able to check over Mel and Roan’s injuries. 

Everyone was exhausted so took very little time to eat their rations and prepare to sleep. Gina didn’t want to make a point of getting Roan alone – she didn’t want anyone to misconstrue her having a private conversation with him, so she elected to wait until an organic opportunity arose, something she would soon come to regret.

The next day’s hiking was awful: it was cold (naturally because it was winter, after all) and it was very wet. The precipitation couldn’t seem to be able to make its mind up as to whether to be rain, sleet, hail or snow which was more depressing than if it had been consistently one of them.

They didn’t hike for long after lunch before Roan led them to a cave system.

“We’ll stay here for the night” Roan declared. “There’s not enough light to see clearly and we don’t want another accident. I know you’ve had a rough time since you came to Earth, but I want you to live long enough to appreciate the wonders of the land. I’m going to look outside for some dry wood; Monty, Murphy, Fox and Zoe collect water but don’t wander; everyone else, take off your wet outer layers, you’ll need to stay dry to stay warm. David, Kyle and Nate check out the caves for anything that we could burn, there’s three of them beyond this entrance, take one each; Raven, set up the chimney; Sinc, try to fashion a way to set the wet clothes to dry; those without a task, prepare the areas for sleeping” and he went back out into the rain.

Mel was so sure that Roan was commenting on her rough time since she came to Earth because she didn’t think that anyone else had had it as tough as she had, he had to be more concerned about her than the others. Deciding that she wanted to let Roan know that she did appreciate his special concern for her, but she could be a comfort and helpmate to him, she declared “I’m going to help Roan” not thinking that with her injured arm she wouldn’t be of any help to him at all and only Jasper had any chance of hearing her given that everyone was carrying out the task that they were assigned, and she followed Roan out into the rain.

“Mel, we need to check your wound” Clarke said looking around. “Mel?” she called not being able to see her patient. “Has anyone seen Mel?” Clarke asked in a loud voice.

“She muttered something about Roan” Jasper said looking puzzled.

“Dammit!” Gina exclaimed. “I bet she’s gone off to have a private word with him. She thinks he’s into her and she only needs to let him know she returns his interest and she will be with him.”

“What? But Roan is into Clarke” Raven said.

“I know, that’s what I tried to tell her but she wouldn’t believe me” Gina replied.

“What do we do?” Jacks asked Clarke.

“We wait until Roan comes back. If she’s with him then all’s well. If she’s not then Sterling, Bellamy and I will have to go and look for her. I don’t want those who are still outside to have to spend more time in that wet than necessary. Let’s get as warmed up as we can, just in case we do need to go” and Clarke removed her wet boots and got her dry pair ready and began to layer up with her spare dry clothes. Bellamy and Sterling copied Clarke, muttering all the while about stupid girls.

The cave searches found plenty of dried wood to start the fire. Clarke said that they should prepare some hot water so everyone could have a hot cup of tea. The water collectors got first dibs on the tea.

Roan returned with some dryish wood, but no Mel. Clarke, Sterling and Bellamy prepared to set off in search of her while Gina explained what they think happened.

“You get warm and dry, we’ll take care of this” Clarke declared grimly as she grabbed a coil of rope.

“I need to get more wood to replace that taken, so that it can dry out for when the next people need the cave” Roan said.

“I’ll come with you” Murphy said. “I can dry out when we get back.”

Roan nodded his head in appreciation.

Clarke, Bellamy and Sterling were able to use their flashlights to look for signs of Mel, as well as listen for her calls. They soon found her. Mel had slipped down an embankment, not a particularly steep or deep one, but one littered with tree roots and protruding rocks.

Clarke and Bellamy used a sturdy tree and the coil of roper to help support Sterling as he carefully made his way down the embankment to Mel.

“She’s breathing fine but she’s knocked out” Sterling called. “You’ll have to pull us both up together, but I should be able to sort of walk up.” 

Sterling lifted Mel up over his shoulder just as Clarke was about to warn him against moving her before she had checked her over for spinal injuries.

Luckily when they were almost at the top of the embankment they heard groans of pain from Mel.

“You’re okay, Mel” Sterling said. “I’ve got you and we’re almost at the top.”

“Thank you” Mel said as she clamped hold of Sterling.

“Loosen up a bit there, Mel: you’ll choke me!” Sterling croaked out, reassuring everyone that it didn’t appear that there was any serious injury to Mel.

When they reached the top Clarke instructed Mel to take care “I need to check you and Sterling over for sprains and strains before we head back to camp and away from this unstable ground. Please, just stay still and let me do my job without risking anymore injuries.” Everyone, bar Mel, could hear the exasperation in Clarke’s voice as she tried to get Mel to cease her prancing around.

“Oh don’t be such a worry wort” Mel exclaimed as she and Sterling were released from the ropes that were used to support Sterling as he climbed up the embankment. “I need to thank my brave hero” and she leapt towards Sterling to wrap him in a hug of gratitude.

Only it didn’t turn out as Mel thought, if she had given the matter any real thought that is. As Mel launched herself at Sterling, she knocked him off balance and he went head first over the embankment that that he had just climbed out, with Mel’s arms still around his neck as she screamed in his ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, a cliffie, but I wanted to get the chapter posted and didn't see a better place to stop, sorry.
> 
> Don't forget to protect yourself and others so that we can have a better 2021 than 2020.


	9. New Home - The journey Paused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cost of Mel's irresponsible actions is counted and paid for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one seems to like Mel. I keep wanting to call her a 'widgeon' but I can't think why - it will come to me.

Clarke turned to Bellamy and told him to get Roan “He’s probably the only one who can prevent me from killing her” she spat out, neither of them at all certain that she was joking.

While Bellamy ran off, Clarke re-secured the rope around the tree and used it to help her get down the embankment safely.

It took just the briefest of glimpses to see that Sterling was dead: head at an odd angle with eyes wide open and staring – a broken neck: probably instantaneous as he landed.

Mel was on her hands and knees crying and begging Sterling to wake up and tell her that he forgives her.

“He’s dead” Clarke declared flatly, with no discernible sympathy.

“How can you say that? You haven’t even looked at him” Mel was desperate. “He’s just knocked out; he’ll wake up.”

“He has a broken neck. Even if he was knocked out, which he’s not since his eyes are open, there’s no recovery from a broken neck. You and your inability to think before you act killed him. Sterling carried you up the embankment and you repaid him by killing him” Clarke wanted to be sure that Mel understood exactly what she had done.

“No, I didn’t mean to kill him!” Mel was frantic. “I just wanted to thank him for rescuing me.”

“And Roan told you to help prepare our sleeping quarters, but you decided to wander off so that we had to search for you, putting all of us at risk. I told you to stand still until I had checked for injuries so that we could get to stable ground safely, but you decided to be disrespectful and to leap at someone who was standing at the edge of the place you fell down” Clarke was angry and frustrated.

“But I thought …” Mel tried to justify her actions.

“It doesn’t matter what you thought” Clarke interrupted angrily. “Do yourself a favour and keep your thoughts to yourself until you are asked. Roan and I will have to consider what to do: we can’t have you risking our lives just because you don’t want to follow simple instructions.”

“I shouldn’t have to do what you say” Mel was indignant.

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Clarke shouted. “For once, Mel, just do as you are told and shut up. Think about what you have done; not what you wanted to do, but what you actually did do. I need to consider what we can do now for poor Sterling so, please, just be quiet.”

Mel no longer tried to talk to Clarke, but she couldn’t stop herself from grumbling quietly that everything was just a misunderstanding and that it wasn’t her fault that Sterling fell over the edge.

Clarke was using her flashlight to search the ditch for inspiration on what they could do with Sterling’s body. The ground was just too wet for them to be able to dig a grave, just like the wood was too wet to make a pyre. She deliberately thought about the practical details to avoid thinking about the emotional cost: she couldn’t do that yet; she couldn’t give in and cry since it would be at the cost of safety until they were in the position of actually being safe. Giving into her emotions would mean that Mel, or whoever tried to protect and defend her, would not be safe from Clarke’s wrath.

Clarke had just about decided on the best course of action when she was joined by Roan, Bellamy, Nate and David Miller, Harper and Fox; all of whom safely came down the embankment using the rope to assist.

When everyone had had greeted Clarke, and ignored Mel, Clarke said “I think the best thing we can do is to dig into the incline there” and she pointed to the place she had chosen, “place Sterling in the gap, cover him with loose debris, and force a land slip from that overhang to lock his body in.”

Roan gave the area a cursory glance but, as expected, couldn’t see anything that would suggest Clarke hadn’t come up with the best plan, simply nodded his agreement and took an axe and sheet of metal that he could use to dig. Bellamy and Nate followed suit while the others began to collect the debris that they could use. 

It didn’t seem to take too long before Roan was satisfied with the shallow cave they had dug into the embankment. Just as well, really since even so small an opening was being compromised with threats of the roof caving in. After removing Sterling’s boots and his outer, warm cloak, he was placed into his final home. The debris was used to cover him and the removed soil was packed around the hole. Finally, it was the hard work of Harper and Fox, who dangled over the overhang to slice at the exposed roots that led to its collapse, entombing Sterling.

After packing down the soil as much as they could, the group recited the Travellers’ Blessing for Sterling.

“Fox, Murphy and Raven are collecting more wood” Harper said. “The others are making sure that we all have something dry to change into.”

“We will need to stay in the cave for the morning, and possibly the whole day” Roan said. “Clarke and I need to consider what to do about Mel, and we will all need to get rid of this mud which will take time.”

No-one could disagree with Roan’s words about getting rid of the mud they were caked in. It was weighing them all down.

“There’s a small rain shower by the cave we can use for as long as it’s raining” Bellamy said. “We’ll freeze but once we’re clean we can soon warm up in the cave and it’s probably no colder than the lake.”

“The rest of you go ahead and make a start” Clarke instructed. “Roan and I will be right behind you.”

Mel looked like she wanted to be part of their discussion but, luckily for her, she was pulled away by Harper and Fox.

Clarke and Roan looked around for anything they might have missed as they talked.

“I won’t agree to banishment or death for her but other than that I’ll consider anything you suggest” Clarke offered.

“Everyone told me about what happened and why and you have to admit that she is a menace, a dangerous menace who could get us all killed with her disobedience” Roan wasn’t happy.

“I know” Clarke agreed, surprising Roan.

“I want her to wear a kill mark, not for the reasons we usually wear one, one that can be in a place that she will see every day so she can be reminded of the life she took” Roan was hesitant to make the suggestion thinking Clarke would balk at the permanent scarring.

“Okay, maybe the letter ‘S’ for his first name so there is no mistaking what it is” Clarke took Roan’s suggestion and expanded on it. “I’ll do it on the back of her left hand since she can’t use that arm already. What else?” Clarke knew there was more.

“She, and the rest, need to know that they must do as we tell them or they will be punished. Mel wandered off when she was told to stay put so I suggest that all the time we are not on the move she be tied up so that she cannot wander off again” Roan was a little worried that Clarke might think that he had gone too far with that.

“Good idea, the punishment is linked to the crime. When should she be released from the punishment; when we get to the island?”

“I think when we board the boat that takes us there. So we point out that there are two punishments for the two different wrong doings?” Roan wanted Clarke to be clear.

“Oh yes, the being tied up is for disobeying her leaders’ instructions and the kill mark for being responsible for Sterling’s death” Clarke was fervent; she really didn’t want to have to do this again and if it meant that they were firmer with Mel than she would otherwise be to make sure the message got through to the others, particularly Bellamy, as well, then so be it.

When Clarke and Roan reached the cave, the others were almost mud free. Roan told Bellamy that they would talk to everyone once they had cleaned off. He deliberately kept his voice sombre: Bellamy had to know that Roan and Clarke were very serious about what they were to say.

Everyone was in the cave, wearing dry clothes and having finished that day’s rations. Mel was sat timidly between Gina and Jackson, not looking at anyone in an effort to try to blend into the background in the hope that she would be forgotten.

“Not long ago you all agreed that Clarke and I would be your joint leaders” Roan began. “I don’t know what the punishment for disobeying your leader’s orders was in the sky, but here on the ground it is always severe, sometimes banishment or death. Clarke has said that she doesn’t want that for us, and I agree; but there must be consequences for not obeying your leaders’ instructions. This is a warning: hesitation in obeying instructions will require talking about, and could lead to punishment, a second hesitation in similar circumstances will definitely lead to a punishment. Reasons for hesitating will be explored in the talk after the first offence and your leaders’ decision is final. There is no excuse for a second offence. You have to trust that Clarke and I want the best for the kru as a whole whether you agree with what we say or not.

“Mel did not hesitate in obeying her leaders’ instructions: she actively disobeyed them. When I left to collect wood she, like others, was told by me to prepare the sleeping areas. She decided not to do as instructed but to wander off. When Mel and Sterling were at the top of the embankment Clarke instructed her to stand still. She decided to speak disrespectfully to Clarke and leapt at Sterling. Mel’s punishment for disobeying our orders is that when we have finished our day’s walking she will be tied up so that she cannot wander off again. Clarke has elected to ignore the rudeness that Mel displayed when she spoke back to her on this occasion but I am giving you all a warning: disrespecting your leaders will come with a punishment in future.”

Roan waited for any questions. There was none.

“Mel displayed incredible thoughtlessness when she leapt at Sterling” Clarke entered the fray. “Having already fallen down the embankment herself she had to know that it wasn’t safe to fool around there, but she did and as a result Sterling died. We all know that Mel did not want Sterling to die but because she didn’t think before she acted he did. Such thoughtlessness has cost us Sterling’s life and we don’t want any more silliness to result in more death. To remind Mel of the cost of her thoughtless actions, I will carve the letter ‘S’ for Sterling on the back of her left hand and cauterise it so that the mark will not be lost. It will fade, but will not be erased.”

Clarke waited for the inevitable.

“No! You can’t do that to me!” Mel screamed. “It was an accident; I didn’t mean for him to die!”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh, Clarke?” Gina asked.

“The accident was foreseeable and preventable” Bellamy put in. “If it had happened on the Arc Mel would have been declared a murderer and floated. Roan and Clarke are right: we need to listen to our leaders, so far they have not steered us wrong so we have no reason to doubt them, and when we act like children instead of adults we need to bear the consequences. Sterling is dead. His death needs to be paid for and hopefully the punishment will be a reminder to Mel, and to the rest of us, that every time we choose a certain action, we are also choosing the consequences that come with that action.”

There were a few murmurs of “hear, hear” and no further exhortations of Mel’s behalf.

“Mel, you will be tied up for the night, so go with Gina to complete any ablutions you need before settling down” Clarke spoke kindly, but firmly, as if Mel was a child being punished.

“Clarke, you can’t do this to me, you can’t!” Mel cried.

“Mel, your actions this evening put all of us in danger. Anyone of us who went to look for you could have perished, as could you. There was no need for you to go wandering around in unfamiliar territory in the dark and you had to know that there was a risk in doing so. Tying you up will ensure that you don’t go wandering again. You have a few minutes, don’t waste them arguing” Clarke insisted as she nodded to Gina to assist Mel got to the entrance of the cave that they had declared would be the temporary toilet.

While Mel and Gina were out of sight, Clarke got out a scalpel, pain killer, and the moonshine. Roan placed two of his knives in the fire to heat up while Bellamy looked for things to safely tie Mel.

“Clarke, are you really sure about doing this?” Jackson asked.

“Yes, the knife in the arm wasn’t enough to teach Mel about taking care and thinking things through before she does something; so perhaps this will” Clarke replied. 

“You who came down with the Arc don’t understand how hard it can be on the ground” Monroe said. “I know Mel had a tough landing but she was rescued by Clarke and Roan and since then she’s had to do nothing to adjust to the ground. The first lesson we had to learn is that we have to work together, be able to trust each other, and when you don’t people die. Mel has shown she doesn’t trust our leaders or the rest of us, so we can’t trust her.”

“Yeah, if we don’t trust Clarke and Roan then we might as well hand ourselves over to be killed now ‘coz we’d be screwed” Murphy gave his succinct view. 

“We’ve all seen how flighty she’s been and you can’t do that here” Harper added.

“I don’t want to die ‘coz someone decided to wander off or get knives thrown at us” Jasper offered.

“I don’t like what’s happening to Mel, but I do think it necessary that something be done and I can’t think of anything more appropriate” Monty gave his support.

“Being a guard on the Arc was hard” David said. “We floated people and they had no chance to change or make amends. Hopefully Mel learns from this and we don’t have anything like this happen again.”

Roan looked around at everyone, marvelling at how they felt safe in giving their views. Even those who thought they were being harsh accepted the necessity for a punishment. He did wonder if some would think that they too might be punished for questioning their decision but it didn’t look like it had occurred to any of them. He was pleased.

Clarke saw the look of satisfaction on Roan’s face and quickly removed it by pointing out that his shoulder needed a clean dressing. Gina and Mel returned while Jackson was dealing with Roan’s shoulder so Clarke said she wanted to look at Mel’s arm.

“Did you get any cuts or scratches on your falls down the embankment that I need to clean, Mel?” Clarke asked as she put moonshine on Mel’s arm before the clean dressing.

Mel cried as she said that there was nothing else that needed cleaning, she just got some scratches on her face that were cleaned in the rain.

“Okay, but I’ll need to keep an eye on them to make sure they stay infection free, It’s important Mel because we have no resistance to the bacteria here on Earth so we need to take special care of any cuts that we get” Clarke emphasised, hoping that Mel was telling the truth. “Come, let’s get you in a relatively comfortable position to tie you up for the night.”

Harper and Bellamy tied Mel’s legs together at the ankle and just below the knee. They made allowances for Mel’s injured arm, and the fact that the back of her hand had to be showing as they tied her arms to her body. Gina helped Mel to lie down while Bellamy, Nate and Murphy went to hold her still.

“What are you doing?” Mel seemed to have forgotten the part about the scar on her hand. “No, you can’t! Stop!”

Clarke quickly sliced the letter ‘S’ across the back of Mel’s hand and pulled the skin apart slightly. Harper poured some moonshine over the cut and Mel screamed in pain and passed out.

“At least this will make closing the wound a little easier” Roan was pragmatic as he retrieved one of his hot knives to burn closed a large proportion of the cut. He had to use his other knife to finish.

“God that smell is awful” Murphy noted.

Gina and Jasper almost gagged while the others settled for nodding in agreement.

Monty passed over some balm that he had made to be a barrier cream as Clarke wrapped the hand. She and Jackson knew that it would be best to leave it to heal in the fresh air but they couldn’t do that while Mel was sleeping.

“We’re staying here for a while” Roan said. “If it stops raining by mid-day then we can move on otherwise we’ll stay here an extra night. We need time to dry everything out before walking again.”

Mel woke up in the night in great pain. Clarke gave her some pain killer, and a swig of the moonshine to help her get back to sleep.

They did spend another night in the cave. They restocked the supply of fire wood and spent some time relaxing. Mel’s arms were untied while they were awake because she would struggle to untie her legs with only the one good hand and she was watched the whole time so she wouldn’t be able to get free unnoticed; but no one made further reference to Mel’s punishments, they just worked around them. When Mel was crying either in frustration at her lack of mobility, or in pain, her wounds were checked and she was given some pain relief when appropriate. Clarke refused to allow Jackson to treat Mel because she knew that Mel would take the opportunity to complain about her punishments and how unfair they were; winding herself up and putting Jackson in an awkward position. Clarke’s professional but none judgmental demeanour took away much of Mel’s ammunition.

The day of rest gave the four newcomers the chance to learn a little of why the others were so content with their lot: their leaders were the first to see to the fire, rearrange the clothing to make sure it was able to dry evenly, and to throw water to rinse off the toilet area; one of the tablets had been downloaded with movies so that some could watch an old show (only one movie was played due to lack of charging because of the rain); some were playing cards for imaginary stakes; there was some form of exercising done that Gina thought used to be called yoga; Trig lessons were given; and then there was the telling great tales around the fire before they settled for sleep again. This time Mel settled without further complaint: it appeared that there was progress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is a nicer person than I: I would have banished her, but I'm trying to be as close to canon as I can without changing my story. Don't forget, in canon Sterling died helping to rescue Mel from the cliff when she crashed to Earth so I wanted to give him a canonical death here. I have no idea what happened to Mel after she arrived at the Arc other than she was a bit clingy to Bellamy so if what I write about her is nothing like her canon character then I apologise and hope it doesn't detract from the story for you.
> 
> Please stay safe.


	10. Chapter 10:  New Home – the Journey Resumes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Sterling's death and Mel's punishments, the kru resume their trek to the island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone got any suggestions on what we call Becca's Island since Roarke'skru don't know that it is Becca's island and will want to call it something else?
> 
> Here we will see a little of S4, S5 and S6 Raven and I'm afraid it's an aspect of her personality that I don't like, but I am going to find a way for her (and me) to get through it. Bellamy is also a little unseasoned despite all that they suffered before he was found by Clarke, but he, too, will have the chance to grow.

The sun was shining, the air was crisp and cold, and the ground was frozen hard without being icy making it relatively easy for walking on. It was a good day with much progress made. No one griped about walking and the sun seemed to make all their burdens that much lighter so they all carried a smile on their faces; even Mel who had up until that day been understandably sullen and moody.

When they stopped for their mid-day break Roan took the opportunity to grab Bellamy for a private word.

Seeing that Roan was clearly uncomfortable, despite all efforts to hide it, Bellamy knew that it wasn’t because he had done something wrong so he leant against a tree in a relaxed stance, gave his leader a little smirk and raised a questioning brow, clearly demonstrating that in that particular moment Bellamy was the one holding the metaphorical cards.

“You’re a pain, you know that, right?” Roan was exasperated.

“Bellamy merely snorted his agreement and waited.

“I want to ask you how I should court a woman from the sky” Roan finally spat out.

For a moment Bellamy looked flabbergasted then gave a loud spurt of laughter.

“Will you be quiet, I don’t want everyone to come and find out what’s wrong” Roan offered in an exasperated shouting whisper.

“I’m sorry, but that was funny. I don’t understand why you would think that I would know how you should go about courting Clarke; ask Raven” Bellamy offered.

“You are courting Raven so you would know how I should court Clarke” Roan said as if it was indisputable.

“Actually I guess I would say we’re courting each other; although Raven did approach me first” Bellamy offered. Seeing that it didn’t help Roan, Bellamy thought of what more he could add. “Raven apparently had been in a long term relationship with someone who died, even though it had ended badly before he died. She didn’t like being alone. She considered all the available men and thought that I would be the best fit for her and approached me to ask if I would consider a relationship. She added that she wasn’t in love with me, but didn’t want to rule out the possibility that one day she might be and that she liked my smile. Rae gave me a whole speech about why I should consider a relationship with her and ended by noting that Clarke said that it could only work if we were totally honest with each other. 

“I told her that I wasn’t adverse to the idea of a relationship but that I had never had more than one night stands in the past because I was always focussed on protecting Octavia, my sister. I added that I agreed that it would only work if we were honest. We ended up agreeing that we would take our time to get to know each other with a view to forming an attachment. The current position is that we’re agreed we like each other, there is an attraction, we like the comfort of having someone there for us and that if we’re still of the same mind by the time we reach the island we would move to the next step and share sleeping quarters. Does that help you at all?”

Roan thought about Bellamy’s words and tried to think about the people involved. “So Clarke advocates the honest direct approach, hmm. What about Kyle and Gina, how did they begin their courtship?” Roan asked for more information about sky people customs.

“Raven told me all about this because, to be honest, I hadn’t noticed anything. She knew Mel, Gina and Wick on the Arc: Mel and Gina because they lived near each other and Wick from work so they were separate. Gina told her almost as soon as they met up again that she thought that Wick was interested in Mel. Separately Wick told Rae that he thought Mel was a waste of space and wished she didn’t hang around them all the time so he could make a move on Gina. Rae repeated that to Gina so Gina knew that Wick was interested in her. They agreed that Rae would take Mel for an evening so that Wick could make his move with some encouragement from Rae. Again, it seemed that all they needed was some honesty. We’ve all, apart from Mel, noticed how you like Clarke. I admit that no-one knows how Clarke feels about you since she’s ignored all the hints we made and we’ve never asked her bluntly, or I’ve not heard of anyone doing so. So what are you going to do?” Bellamy asked, not sure that he really cared as long as it didn’t affect him.

Roan considered for a moment. “One day, before the moon is full, I will ask to talk privately and just tell her that I would like to pursue a relationship with her with a view to long term matching and ask how she would feel about that. What do you think?”

Bellamy thought back to all the interactions he had had with the Princess and decided that it was as good as anything that he could suggest. When he said as much, Bellamy added, “but if you want a second opinion, ask Raven since she is more likely to know”.

Mel’s arm, where she was struck by the knife, and the cauterised ‘S’ on her hand were healing well. The scratches on her face had all but disappeared; but there was definitely something wrong with her.

“Mel, you have a low grade fever, perhaps it’s the flu, and you’re a little overheated” Clarke said when she finished the dressing on Mel’s arm. “I’ll get Monty to make you a tea. It tastes awful but it’s a good anti-biotic, made from the same plant that we used to make the salve to make sure your wounds didn’t get infected. Drink some each evening and each morning.”

Clarke spoke to Monty about making the tea and to Jackson about the lack of proper anti-biotics. Monty was happy to comply; Jackson explained that the most of the supply of anti-biotics was destroyed when they landed and that with the loss of Farm Station they had no means of making more.

“Well none of us who were treated with the water weed died from any infections, while of those who weren’t at least ten died so it is clearly better than having nothing. Let’s hope we can find something as good if not better close to our new home” Clarke was philosophical, assuming that Mel indeed had nothing more serious than a mild dose of the flu and would soon be completely well again.

But Mel didn’t get better; she got worse.

When they were at a smooth flowing river, close to the caves that Roan had said they would stay the night even though there was a couple more hours of daylight left and it wasn’t raining, Clarke decreed that they would all take the opportunity to wash since it was likely to be one of the last times they had the luxury before they reached the island they were aiming for. Gina and Harper said that they would help Clarke bathe Mel once they were clean.

When Mel’s hair was lifted off her back to help with washing the problem became clear.

“Shit!” Clarke exclaimed. “Jackson, come here quick!” she called, hoping someone was close enough to hear and to send for the doctor, because although Clarke was pretty sure she knew that the problem was serious she held onto that small element of doubt, hoping that she was wrong,

Clarke, Harper and Gina helped Mel to the bank. Seeing how distraught Clarke was about Mel, and how she was paying no heed to her own nakedness, Harper and Gina did no more than to wrap themselves roughly in their small towels, more for the limited warmth than modesty.

Jackson came running as soon as he heard Clarke’s call, only taking the time to grab the medical supplies, Roan came with him because it was his kru and clearly there was a problem. Seeing the tableau that awaited them Roan couldn’t immediately discern the problem. Jackson, however, could tell instantly what had Clarke so concerned as soon as he saw Mel’s bare neck and shoulders.

“Oh Shit” Jackson repeated Clarke’s words. “This is bad.”

Judging by both Clarke and Jackson’s alarm Harper knew how bad the problem was because Clarke had gone to great lengths to explain to them when they first joined her exactly how important it was that all cuts were thoroughly cleaned and looked after, even the smallest and shallowest of scratches. Living on the Arc they had developed absolutely no immunity to any of the germs that resided on Earth and even the smallest of cuts could lead to a fatal infection. Gina didn’t quite understand how bad it was, but looking at both Clarke and Jackson she realised that it was very bad, even if she didn’t understand why.

“Mel, you don’t have the flu” Clarke began, “but you do have a cut at the back of your neck that has become infected. Can you remember when you got the cut and what you did to clean it?”

“Bankment, rain shower” Mel said.

Clarke took a deep breath to control the anger she was feeling. “Okay, why don’t we get you dried and dressed then Jackson and I can talk about what we can do to help you?”

Gina threw Mel’s towel over her body while Roan bent down to lift her easily into his arms to carry her back to the cave with Jackson walking beside them knowing that the med kit would do no good.

“Tell me” Gina demanded while she, Harper and Clarke quickly dried and dressed.

“Those red tentacles going across her shoulders and down her back and chest show how far the infection has spread. We don’t have the means to stop it” Clarke was frustrated and she stomped her way back to the cave.

Clarke joined Jackson and Roan just outside the caves.

“Is it true?” Roan looked to Clarke. “Could such a small cut be fatal?”

“Yes, that is why I have stressed the importance of wound care. The infection has taken hold and the only method we have of treating it is having no effect, it is too far advanced. Sometimes we could cut out the infected area, but given the location and hold it has it isn’t possible in Mel’s case” Clarke didn’t know whether frustration or anger at the further blatant disregard of instructions by Mel was at the forefront of her emotions.

“That woman has caused more trouble than everyone else put together” Roan muttered, mirroring Clarke’s thoughts. “What do you suggest?”

“On the Arc she would have been given no more than two doses of penicillin, which we don’t have, to see if it was having any effect, and then left to die if not” Jackson said without saying what he would like them to do.

“I suggest we give her something to help her sleep and when she is completely out of it I slit her carotid” Clarke said.

“No, I will break her neck” Roan said, thinking it was an appropriate ending for her given what happened to Sterling, and besides “no blood to attract animals or to clean up” he added.

“I don’t like it but we don’t have the means to do anything better for her” Jackson offered as Clarke agreed with Jackson’s sentiment.

“Very well, if you go and make her comfortable and send everyone else out here so we can talk and then we can prepare. Do you have something that will make her sleep?” Roan asked Jackson.

“Yes, I’ll just tell her that it’s medicine to help her feel better and put some cool cloths on her so she’ll think it is helping lower her temperature. Give me half an hour with her” and Jackson went back to his patient and to send the others out to talk with Clarke and Roan, glad that he was being consulted, but grateful that the final responsibility wasn’t his.

“Mel doesn’t have the flu” Clarke began to explain. “She has a cut on the back of her neck about one centimetre long. It wasn’t looked after properly and has become infected. The infection has spread across her shoulders and down her back and chest. The only possible cure is for her to receive a full course of anti-biotics, preferably penicillin. We don’t have any. The herbal anti-biotic we have only works as a prophylactic or to treat mild infections. Mel will continue to get sicker until she dies. We have two options, we let the infection take its course or we painlessly euthanize her. Jackson, Roan and I have all agreed that it’s better that we do the latter.”

“Better?” Bellamy questioned. “Better for who, you? How can it be better for Mel that you just kill her?”

Clarke took a deep breath, surprised that Bellamy wasn’t more pragmatic. “Would you want to live on for days getting sicker and sicker, feeling more and more pain? There is no positive outcome here, for anyone!” Clarke explained.

“Yeah, you seem pretty good at euthanasia. You did it to Finn, too” Raven snarked shocking Clarke with Raven’s vehemence.

“Hang on there, Raven” Monroe put in since Clarke was too hurt to defend herself, “Clarke did exactly what Finn asked because he was in great pain from the acid fog and you know it.”

“Atom got hit by the acid fog and begged me to kill him” Bellamy said more subdued. “I couldn’t do it. He cried and begged all day. He died in the night.”

“No he didn’t” Murphy contradicted. “He was suffocated by me in the night. I asked him if he was sure and he begged me to do what Bellamy couldn’t despite all his bravado about making hard choices. If there really is no chance for Mel to get better, then I agree, quick and painless.” Clarke smiled her gratitude at Murphy for his support.

“Well I think you’re a bunch of cold blooded murderers” Raven declared and stormed off into the cave to warn Mel that she was about to be killed.

Inside the cave Jackson was placing a cold cloth over Mel’s forehead quietly talking to her. “I am so sorry that this is happening to you. At least this way you got to see and feel the ground. We won’t let you die alone or in pain, I promise. This is not the Arc and we, Clarke and Roan won’t let you suffer as you go to your final journey to the ground. Rest now, all your pain and suffering will be at an end.”

“Is it true that there is no chance?” Raven demanded.

“Come on back outside” Jackson said firmly as he took Raven’s arm to drag her away if necessary. “Mel might be able to hear you.”

Outside the cave everyone else was still there arguing amongst themselves. They all agreed that it wasn’t fair to Mel to let her suffer the pain of a prolonged death, but some thought that they shouldn’t kill her unless she asked for it.

“Mel will have periods of lucidity” Jackson re-joined the discussion. “Strangely the more lucid she is the greater her pain. She could linger for days. If the infection was in her arm I would offer amputation to save her. We cannot amputate her back, neck and chest so there is no chance of her recovering: none. On the Arc she would have been placed on a bed and just left, or if we were short of space she would have just been floated. Depending on circumstances, she may have been offered two doses of penicillin to see if there was any improvement, but unless she was very lucky she would not have been offered a third, let alone a full course: and even then it might not have been enough. Clarke made sure we all knew the risks of not treating cuts properly; even going as far as making sure that Roan’s shoulder was looked after and he is used to the bacteria on the ground. Mel knew the risks and we don’t know if she deliberately ignored them, just didn’t think about them, or hadn’t realised that the cut was more than a shallow scratch.”

“Knowing Mel she just didn’t think about the risks, probably thought that Clarke was just being melodramatic. She will never ask for you to kill her, but she will beg you to take the pain away. If you told her it was a choice she wouldn’t believe you, try to make you promise not to kill her, but to also promise to take the pain away. You won’t gain anything by asking her. I agree to euthanasia: the painless mercy kill. I’m going to be with her for a while” Gina said.

Gina, Kyle, Jackson and Roan went in so that as soon as Jackson said Mel was asleep Roan could painlessly grant her death.

“Let’s try to look for a good place to bury her” David said; someone who hadn’t weighed in on the discussion previously.

“I think the ground is too hard” Murphy said. “We’re going to have to cremate.”

“We’ll help look for wood” Monty said morosely as he and Jasper began to look for pieces of dead wood.

Everyone else joined the search except for Raven, Bellamy and Nate who were badgering Clarke about doing the right thing, and how they didn’t want to be like on the Arc where death was the only answer.

“It’s not like on the Arc” Clarke explained, again. “If Mel had looked after the cut then she would be well. We’re on the Earth and when you don’t take wound care seriously then you are more than likely to suffer serious consequences. Mel had the choice and she consistently chose to ignore the advice that she was given. Advice that was there to keep her and the rest of us safe. Are you saying that you want to go back to the chaos of doing whatever the hell we want? Because if you are you need to seriously consider whether or not you want to stay with us because I am not going down that road; I wouldn’t do it then and I certainly won’t do it now; nor am I going to keep having this argument” was finally losing her temper with Raven and Bellamy (not Nate because he had just stood there and listened as the others went on and on).

“I’m not sure I want to be led by someone like you who seems to be so cavalier about killing someone just because they’re sick” Raven said self righteously.

“I need to think about it” Bellamy agreed. “I know you’re not being cavalier, but I had hoped that we were away from killing and death. Perhaps we should try to find the people Lincoln took Octavia and the rest to. Lincoln said that Flokru were a peace loving people.”

Clarke just shook her head in disappointed amazement and she went to speak with the others not able to believe what she was hearing from Raven and Bellamy. Clarke found Murphy with Jasper and Monty and briefly explained what Raven and Bellamy were thinking.

“I’m not going with them” Murphy was adamant. “Bloody hypocrites. Bellamy’s attitude got a lot of people killed even if he wasn’t the one to actually kill them. You continue to be honest with me and I’ll continue to have no problem following yours and Roan’s lead.”

“We left because we knew we weren’t safe with Bellamy” Monty said. “You’ve done nothing to make me feel that I’m not safe with you. I don’t like that you had to kill Finn and Mel, but I do know that it’s very hard for you; that you feel their loss – it’s in your eyes.”

“Yeah, you’re constantly trying to nag at us to do things safely” Jasper pointed out. “It can be a bit irritating actually, but it’s better than a leader who doesn’t give a damn. I know you’ll do your best for us and if someone is going to keep ignoring what you say then they really can’t argue with the consequences, I don’t think.”

“Thank you, really, I mean it. Thank you for your confidence. Roan and I really do want you all to be safe and happy” Clarke confirmed, buoyed up a little at the trio’s emphatic support.

Next Clarke found Fox, Harper and Monroe. After giving them a brief rundown of the situation all three of them with no hesitation said that they were with Clarke and Roan, much to Clarke’s relief. 

Clarke didn’t have the chance to speak to the others before the pyre was built for Mel. Sinclair said that he didn’t think they had enough dry wood to ensure that Mel was cremated properly so they used some of their precious moonshine as an accelerant. After they had said the ‘Traveller’s Blessing’ for Mel and the fire had died Clarke told everyone that they needed to speak.

“Raven and Bellamy are thinking of leaving us to try to find the people that Lincoln took the others of Skaikru to” Clarke was blunt, her anger and hurt leaking through despite her efforts at being impassive.

“Why would you want to do that?” Kyle asked shocked at the turn of events. “It wasn’t that long ago that you were going on about how we need to listen to our leaders and how they’re good for us.”

“That was before I saw how easily they could kill someone just because she was sick” Bellamy said. “I’ve seen enough of death and Lincoln said that Flokru are peace loving.”

At that Roan snorted. “Yes Flokru are a peaceful people but that doesn’t mean that they would let someone suffer when there was no hope for recovery. I think Luna, the leader of Flokru, would regard that as inhumane. If one can’t have a good death then they should at least have a quiet death. I can’t speak for Clarke on this, but I say that if you don’t want to be part of our kru then you should leave.”

“I want you to stay” Clarke said, “but not if you’re going to keep threatening and trying to undermine us. You’re either with us or you’re not; and if you think that it is at all easy for me to take a life, even to end someone’s suffering then you really don’t know me at all.”

“I’m staying with you” Murphy said.

“We are too” Monroe said indicating herself, Fox and Harper.

“And us two” Jasper pointed to Monty.

“Perhaps I should talk to you first, Kyle” Gina said, “but I want to stay with Roarke’skru. You have a plan and you know what you’re doing. So far this journey has been a bit of a nightmare, but no worse than you warned us about. Sterling and Mel’s deaths are Mel’s fault so I don’t blame you at all. I’m grateful for the respect you have shown them.”

“I agree with Gina” Kyle said.

“As do I” said Sinclair.

“Nothing has happened that would make me question for even a second that I’m not with the right leaders” Jackson said.

“I think it is in our best interests to stay together, but I will go where Nate goes” David said.

“I go where Bellamy goes; sorry Jacks” Nate said, and Clarke wondered if that was a killer blow to their fledgling relationship.

“Bellamy, I want you to remember what state you were in when Clarke’s people found you” Roan said. “You would have died if they didn’t take you to their camp and look after you. How many of your people did die because you don’t know how to lead, can’t make the hard choices to the benefit of all and not the few? I know your first loyalty is to your sister; and from what you’ve said that will never change unless you are blessed with a child of your own; but you need to look beyond that loyalty. Nate, if your first loyalty is to your friend, even if he is in the wrong, and not with your leaders or even your father then I think you need to re-think your priorities. David, I understand you putting your child first. Raven, for the first time since I met you I am disappointed. If we only have your loyalty for as long as we do as you want then I don’t want it. If your friendship to Clarke is so flimsy then it is not true friendship. If Clarke agrees, those wishing to leave, let us know tomorrow first thing so that we can apportion supplies and I can point you in the direction of flokru lands.” Roan looked to Clarke and saw her nod of agreement.

Harper, Fox and Monroe grabbed Bellamy and Raven to talk to them about their idiocy.

Jasper, Monty and Murphy grabbed Nate and David to talk to them about how bad a leader Bellamy was and how good Clarke and Roan are, hoping to persuade them to transfer their loyalty.

Gina, Kyle, Sinclair and Jackson wandered back into the cave to wonder how it was all going to turn out before settling down for some sleep after the emotional turmoil of the evening.

Roan led Clarke away so that he could talk to her about what they should do if Bellamy and Raven decide to stay with them.

“I knew Bellamy could be an ass” Clarke sighed, “but I thought that Raven knew me better, and trusted you more. I don’t want people with us who don’t want to be with us, but if they go off on their own they’re as good as dead, aren’t they?”

Roan looked into Clarke’s eyes and was tempted to lie; but … “Yes”, honesty. “I think that we should make it clear that if they threaten mutiny again they will be banished from our kru. We will need to build up more people to flourish, but at this difficult time we can’t have more Mel’s. I want us to be united as leaders; as a people; as …” and Roan trailed off thinking that it was not the time to allude to he and Clarke as chosens.

Clarke saw something in Roan’s expression and pressed: “as …?”

“As chosens; you and I as a courted matched pair” Roan finished. “I know that others had seen my interest in you, although none know if that interest is returned; and if you do not want to consider it then it will not affect how we lead.”

At that Clarke snorted “Then you’re a better person than I” she said. “Yes, I am interested in you, how could I not be? But there is a lot about me that you don’t know that I think you should know before we make decisions of that nature. I was thinking that once we settle on the island that we would talk, say what needs to be said, things that the other needs to know, and then we decide once all the important stuff is out there so that there are no bad big surprises. I want us to be sure because once we commit, I want it to be permanent; and I don’t want to give our people any reason to think that we are not 100% together as leaders, which is what they would think if they saw us dancing around each other personally.”

Roan saw that Clarke was nervous, but earnest.

“Okay” Roan agreed. “We concentrate on getting to the island and being united co-leaders and then we talk about the possibility of more.”

Giving Roan a beaming smile that still showed her relief, Clarke said “Agreed, partner. Do you want to deliver the warning tomorrow because you will do it so much better than I?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's lots of things for Clarke to tell Roan, and lots that she wants to know about him; but they can wait.
> 
> I do like a Murphy and Clarke friendship so I'm going to work on that a bit more in future chapters, sorry to anyone who thinks otherwise.
> 
> Don't forget to stay warm if it's cold, cool if it's hot, and away from anyone who is not part of your household bubble if you're in a country with COVID19.


	11. New Home - The Journey Continues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Bellamy and Raven made idiots of themselves the fallout is felt as Roarke'skru continue their journey to their new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has left kudos, but especially those who take the time to write comments. Receiving the e-mail notification makes my day so thank you all so very much.

Clarke lay down to sleep close to where Roan sat to watch the entrance to the cave. She could feel his reassuring warmth cross the small divide between them as she allowed his words of courtship, or potential courtship, to dance around in her mind as she settled. She wasn’t stupid: Clarke could tell that Roan was interested in more than leadership with her; but she did wonder how much of that interest was generated by their situation fed by the lack of real knowledge they each had about the other. Before she fully accepted Roan’s interest, Clarke wanted there to be no doubt about the true nature of their bond should they decide to commit because one thing Clarke did know about Roan and herself, once they committed there was no going back.

Roan watched as Clarke settled to sleep with a small, self-satisfied smile on her face. He knew that she was not opposed to joining with him and he surmised that she felt that they needed a degree of privacy to get to know each other better. It was something he could agree with as he listened to Bellamy and Raven whisper argue at the far side of the cave.

Roan was concerned: he was well aware that Bellamy could be dangerous: he showed a distinct lack of forethought, and was volatile. Bellamy was reactive instead of pro-active and never seemed to see potential consequences beyond the immediate future. In that respect Bellamy was similar to Raven. She, too, never seemed to think beyond what came out of her mouth. He didn’t know the full story of Finn’s death, or at least Roan assumed that he didn’t since from what he did know Clarke displayed remarkable compassion for Finn when she ended his life so there had to be more than he knew for Raven to react the way she did.

Nate was the surprise to Roan. From what he had seen of the young man, Nate was thoughtful and loyal. He could understand a degree of loyalty to Bellamy, but Roan couldn’t see why that loyalty would outweigh Nate’s loyalty to his father; the father who would be killed as surely as he would be if they left Roarke’skru, protected as they were by his knowledge and Clarke’s care.

“Roan, can I have a quick word?” Monty asked quietly. On seeing Roan’s quick nod of agreement Monty went on: “You should know that although Raven is brilliant with Tech, especially with fixing things, I am too. I’m not as trained as Raven, because she is older and I am from Farm Station which meant I had to be a farmer like my parents, but I am good and Sinc, Kyle and myself can cover for the loss of Raven’s skills should she decide not to stay with us so you don’t need to worry about her going.”

Roan heard Monty’s words and felt a warmth spread through him: Monty knew that he would worry about losing Raven’s tech skills and wanted to reassure him. “Thank you, Monty; that is a relief to know. Sleep well.” 

“Before you tell us what you’ve decided to do Roan and I want you to know that we’re not going to have you threatening to leave all the time if you do decide to stay with us” Clarke was adamant, looking to Roan to take over the discussion.

“If you don’t like the way we do things, talk to us calmly and respectfully. We will listen to your views but it is our responsibility to decide what to do. We will do what we think is best for our kru. We will not allow our people to suffer when there is no way to save them and if you cannot live with that then you should leave now. Behaviour like you displayed last evening will result in banishment from Roarke’skru. If you are not committed to us, and to getting us all safely to the island, then leave now so that the rest of us can continue without wondering when you’re going to turn on us next.”

“Well said” Murphy muttered, loud enough to be heard, but quiet enough to be ignored.

Bellamy took Raven’s hand and nodded to Nate; then he spoke. “We’re sorry. We know that you wanted to end the suffering of Mel and Finn, although we also think that part of your reasoning was that Mel would slow us down” and he looked at Roan in arrogant question.

“I admit that I thought about it, but only to consider logistics of us waiting a few more days to move on from here. I only accepted that benefit once it was made clear that Mel could not recover from her infection and the decision to end her fight had already been made, so you were not quite correct” Roan said while Clarke nodded her agreement.

“Oh” Bellamy was a little chagrined. “Anyway, we know that the way spoke to you as leaders was disrespectful we’re sorry for that. We don’t want to leave Roarke’skru. We were venting and accept that future vents should be made in private because when you need to vent about us we don’t want you to do that in front of everyone else. Will you accept out apology and let us stay?”

Everyone could hear the bravado in Bellamy’s voice as he spoke for himself and Raven. Clarke knew that Bellamy was the one to speak because he would actually sound like he meant the apologies while Raven’s words would sound begrudging at best. Clarke began to see the pattern with Raven’s behaviour: she would let her emotions out by saying things that she knew would hurt, whether she really meant them or not, and then, once she had cooled down, she would act like she had not been disrespectful or hurtful and expect everyone else to behave with the same sense of amnesia. Clarke decided that she wouldn’t any longer; but that was between the two of them and for later.

Roan touched the back of Clarke’s hand to gain her attention, then raised a questioning brow. Clarke nodded her acceptance.

“Very well, we accept your apology and are glad that you are all to stay because in order to flourish we need to grow in size not shrink” Roan said. “But take heed: we cannot flourish if there is dissension in the ranks so this is your only warning. Think before you speak. If you are so angry that you cannot think, then wait until you have calmed. Within most clans, speaking as you did to your leaders is grounds for a good whipping, at least, but neither Clarke nor I want to equate respect with fear; and we don’t want anyone, you or any of the clans’ people we come across, to think that our forbearance is a sign of weakness.

“Come, let’s prepare to leave: it is quite a long hike today and we leave Trikru lands, cross into Sangedakru territory and head towards the dead zone.”

It was a long hike, and the atmosphere was tense. Everyone took note of the fact that Clarke made sure that she was as far away from Raven as possible. Bellamy didn’t understand why she was content to be reasonably physically close to him, but made sure that she was well away from Raven. It took Nate to explain it to him.

“Clarke was well aware of your potential to dislike her and think badly of her motives” Nate said. “She thought that Raven was her friend so what Raven said hurt a lot more.”

Bellamy grunted his new understanding and wondered if there was anything he could do to make things right between the two women or to just leave for them to sort out themselves. Then something else occurred to him. “Murphy’s definitely Roan’s man now, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he only stayed with us because he thought that there was safety in numbers. Murphy is all about making sure he survives and he knows that his best chance to survive down here is with Roan and Clarke. And, by the way, I’ve thought about what Monty said to me about my loyalty to you putting not only my life at risk, but also my dad’s, and my dad deserves better. So if you change your mind and want to go off to find Flokru, I won’t come with you unless it’s a planned trip with reasonable safety precautions; okay?” Nate was worried that Bellamy would be offended by his words.

“Okay, that’s fair” Bellamy agreed while wondering what would constitute ‘reasonable safety precautions’. “And I think you need to do something to make it up to Jackson, too.”

At that Nate sighed in frustrated sadness: “Yeah, I don’t think that’ll happen any time soon. As has been pointed out to me, Gina at least apologised to Kyle straight away for not consulting him before announcing where she stood; I just stated that I go where you go without even thinking of Jacks: he’s both hurt and pissed.”

“Sorry, mate” Bellamy sympathised. “Rae’s not handling the situation well: she can’t understand how we’re not all angry with Clarke. She doesn’t get that I panicked, but wasn’t really angry. Monroe was pissed that Raven blamed Clarke for Finn’s death saying that she should be grateful that Clarke did what Raven was too cowardly to do. I pointed out that I was too cowardly to end Atom’s suffering as well. I think I will be happy just as long it’s only someone in pain who won’t survive, not just someone who won’t survive: like if someone had a terminal illness, would they be killed or be allowed to live what time they had left.”

“Talk to Roan and Clarke and find out. It might be something that you can use to calm Raven down. She’s a bit too feisty, that one; I don’t envy you” Nate smiled.

“I prefer too feisty to too cold” Bellamy said. “I think part of her problem at the moment is that she has nothing to exercise her brain on and she’s just frustrated. She’ll be better when she has something to do other than hike and help set up camp.”

Nate nodded his agreement, while wondering if Bellamy was being a little over optimistic.

Gina could see that Jackson was glum. The purposeful way by which he avoided even looking at Nate together with the bright, falsely cheerful banter he was engaging in with Clarke was a real giveaway.

“Talk to him, please” Gina asked Kyle, nodding in Jackson’s direction.

“Already tried” Wick replied. “He doesn’t know if he’s more angry or hurt. He thought he and Nate were building something and then Nate declares for all to hear that Bellamy comes first, even when he’s being an eejit, without even considering Jacks. It’ll take time for him to get over it, regardless as to whether or not he and Nate get back together. Raven is the one I’m worried about: she never has had a filter, and ordered apologies were begrudging at best. I don’t think Roan will care that her mother drank all her rations away, or that she is the youngest zero-G mechanic for over 50 years; he won’t put up with her shit.”

“No, you’re right. Being a tech genius is not going to get her anywhere when there’s hardly any tech and we have a few other geniuses around. I guess all we can do is to make it clear we’re Roarke’skru and remain all their friends” Gina concluded.

The hike was long. The midday break was announced long after the actual midday had come and gone.

“Drink what you can and fill up your canteens” Roan ordered. “This will be the last fresh water source for more than a day: three days if we’re unlucky. I’m going to fill the moonshine container with water and store the moonshine in the spare canteens. Once we leave here, drink only small amounts and make sure that what’s in your canteen will last until tomorrow night. We start our walk through the Dead Zone.”

Roan nodded to Clarke to indicate that he wanted to speak with her privately. Clarke nodded and followed Roan away from the rest of their people.

“Tonight will be cold; colder than we have been so far” Roan said. “After tonight the nights will be even colder and we should all huddle together for warmth. And there will be no opportunity for fires. Do you think you should warn everyone that from tomorrow we will all be sleeping in the one tent so it doesn’t come as an unpleasant surprise?”

Clarke thought for a moment and quickly realised that it had the potential for Raven to go off on one of her rants if she’s suddenly told to huddle up with everyone else.

“I’ll warn everyone tonight” Clarke decided. “What will the day time temperature be like?”

“If the sun shines, cold but very pleasant feeling; if it’s cloudy, cold and miserable, but at least rain gives fresh water. Moving cloud means wind which is like walking through a sandy blizzard. So far it looks like it will be cold and bright for the next few days, which usually means the nights are colder” Roan didn’t know why that was the case, but it was.

“The clouds help keep any warmth from the sun from escaping, a form of insulation” Clarke explained. “We were told that even in the hottest deserts, nights could get very cold for that reason.”

Roan snorted in amusement, surprised at the things that the sky people knew and hoping that they can find ways to make use of their knowledge in the world they now occupy.

By the time they came to the cave that Roan said they would spend the night everyone was tired and irritable.

“Don’t forget to not drink much of your water” Clarke reminded everyone. “And from tomorrow night, we’ll all have to huddle up together in the one tent since the nights will get so cold for a while and there’ll be no opportunity to make fires even if it was okay to draw attention to ourselves.”

“If all is well, we should only be in the dead zone for three more nights” Roan offered the good news. “If the weather doesn’t hold it may require four, but we are passed the time of the really bad storms for a while. While the rest of us set up sleep zones, could you, Sinc, Kyle and Raven, try to build a condenser funnel to collect whatever water is in the air for the morning? Unless it rains, that will be the only way to collect water until we leave the dead zone.”

There were some mutters of disquiet, but nothing that indicated anyone was thinking of rebelling.

“Erm, how long after we leave the dead zone until we reach the island, Roan?” Monty asked.

“Depends on how quickly we find or build a boat” Roan laughed. “It will be two more days until we reach the water and I would think no more than five days to acquire a boat. Provided visibility is good and the water calm, just half a day to cross the water even if we have to paddle.”

Roan didn’t appear to realise that he had rendered most of his kru mute with fear. The idea of having to physically paddle across open water was not appealing, especially to those who had not had the opportunity to learn to swim.

Bellamy mentally gulped: he had no worries about swimming, over a short distance in a relatively calm lake when it was not the middle of winter, but the idea of having to cover the distance equivalent to a half a day’s boat ride in circumstances that were not ideal was not good. Luckily, before he could open his mouth and put his foot in it again, he realised that this was a good opportunity to demonstrate his trust in Roan and Clarke.

“I don’t suppose this boat will have life jackets, will it?” he smirked. “I’m voting that we wait until it’s calm before we attempt the crossing, Miller will get sea sick!”

“Hey!” Nate exclaimed. “None of us have been on a boat and any of us could get sea sick!”

“Didn’t the old sailors used to drink rum all the time?” Murphy asked. “Perhaps we could just make do with a big gulp of moonshine before we set off.”

Bellamy was glad that the tension appeared to have been lifted. He looked to his girlfriend and saw that she was busily getting on with Sinc and Kyle to fashion some sort of metal contraption to allow them to collect the condensation from the air: Raven was definitely happier when she had things she could do. Bellamy understood because he was irritable when he was stuck being a janitor which was a boring as hell when he could have been doing something he enjoyed more and was more of a challenge. Walking all day just wasn’t doing it for poor Raven! Still, from what Roan said about the island Raven would be in tech heaven once they got there.

Bellamy thought about Sterling for a moment: he was such an easy going guy, but so adventurous. Sterling would probably have hoped that they would have to build their own boats to get to the island just for the sheer hell of doing something he had never tried before. Given the number of people who had died since they came to the ground, Bellamy was surprised at the stab of grief he felt at the loss of his friend, and he briefly felt anger at Mel for the death of Sterling and was momentarily glad that he wouldn’t have to see her again.

The water that was condensed from the air was the best tasting water he had ever drank before in his life, Bellamy thought, and relished the idea of drinking it the next few mornings again.

“That water is so sweet!” Harper said as she enjoyed her portion, reflecting Bellamy’s thoughts. “And, no, Jasper, I don’t want you to give me the scientific reason as to why that water tastes better than the other water we’ve drank; I just want to enjoy it.”

Bellamy smirked at the chagrined expression on Jasper’s face that made quite clear that Jasper was indeed going to explain, thus taking the small amount of magic and romance out of the occasion.

The journey through the dead zone went exactly as Roan forecast: cementing the idea that he was honest and could be trusted. Bellamy liked that it wasn’t sugar coated; it did indeed get freaking freezing at night and everyone was huddled together inside the tent, grateful for all the body warmth that could be shared. The dry sand was difficult to walk through, and he could feel the tightness in his legs at the unusual exercise, but the weather remained bright and dry.

“You know, this scenery is a bit repetitive after a while” Murphy remarked when they had stopped for a midday break on what they hoped would be their last full day in the desert. “I think I’m gonna plan to never walk through the desert again, if that’s okay with everyone?”

“Yeah, I hear you mate” Jasper agreed.

Bellamy looked to Roan to see if he thought that Murphy and Jasper were beginning a small rebellion; but he didn’t: Bellamy was pleasantly shocked at the small smile amusement on Roan’s face.

“We promise that we will ask you to walk through a desert again only if your life depends on it; how’s that?” Clarke asked.

“Much appreciated” Murphy responded, “although if there is another way to get from A to B, that would be appreciated even more.”

“I’ll do my best to plan any future journeys to take account of your desire for pretty scenery” Roan promised Murphy, to everyone’s amusement.

“I don’t know, but I think that our morning water might well be worth the boring scenery for a few days” Harper sighed.

“It’s not the scenery that’s dragging for me” Gina put in; “it’s the ache in my legs from walking through this sand. I’m just not used to this amount of exercise!”

“There are many different types of ground over the coalition and some are harder to walk on than others” Roan agreed.

“Hey, does anyone know if it’s possible to ski over sand like you can ski over snow?” Fox asked. “If you can perhaps we can go into the business of making skis for people.”

“What is ‘ski’?” Roan asked puzzled.

At that, all of his kru stopped walking to stare at him in amazement.

“Erm, it’s where you put long thin pieces of wood under your feet so you can glide over the top of the snow" Fox replied a little hesitantly.

“Oh, we didn’t put long thin things, we used round discs” Roan replied.

“Perhaps when we’re settled we can investigate the benefits of one over the other and I do think there is, or was, a type of sand shoes that we can consider” Clarke replied; “but I don’t know if those who actually live in the desert have developed a better system than we can learn about. It can be one of the tasks for someone to investigate, things that we could make and use for trade. Let’s be honest, knowledge about how to walk across a desert would not have been natural to those who lived in this area before the bombs.”

That night Sinc called everyone to order. “I’ve talk to Roan about what we will face when we arrive at the island and we need to agree the best way forward.” 

Once again Bellamy was feeling like an idiot for not thinking that Roan would seek the advice of someone much more knowledgeable than he. Bellamy guessed that Roan probably talked with Clarke to ask what she thought they should do and Clarke would naturally say that dealing with the technology would be best left to those who know what they’re doing.

“There is apparently no issue with landing on the island: there is even a jetty of sorts for boats to dock. Just a couple of metres from the beach are posts with lights and if you pass the posts then drones with guns attached greet you. The drones also have cameras because if you show you have some tech to bring the drones don’t shoot. If you have no tech then they shoot until you are dead or pass the sensor posts back to the beach. Roan doesn’t know how far around the island the sensor posts are but of the area he has seen they are about five or six metres apart.

“As you move into the island you reach a very large house and are greeted at the door by a woman. Only from what Roan said I don’t think it is a woman, I think it is a holographic AI. Roan has been there three times and at the last visit she pressed him to swallow what she called ‘the key to the City of Light’. Apparently the City of Light is where people can live in peace, feel no pain or hunger. From Roan’s description it is either a mind control microchip or a mind control drug. It has stamped on it an infinity symbol, a sacred symbol, the Commander’s symbol to those from the ground which is why Roan knew it was wrong to swallow it. Once we get hold of one we can determine exactly what it is but in the meantime we all have to make damned sure that none of us swallow one.

“We don’t know exactly what or who we are dealing with so until we are sure we are safe everyone will be armed and will not be alone. At least one of each small group with be armed with a gun and know how to use it. We don’t know why the AI was collecting tech and until we do we stay on our guard.”

Does anyone have a problem with anything Sinc said?” Roan asked. On seeing everyone shake their heads in the negative he carried on. “Good, because Clarke and I have agreed that from the moment we land on the island Sinc is in charge until he tells us it’s safe or we have retreated back passed the guard posts.

“The bad news is that the weather is changing and we will have to complete our walk in the wind. It will not be a full storm but we should set off as soon as possible in the morning and cover as much of your face with cloth as you can. Jasper, you are very lucky to have your eye protection and I ask you to take advantage of them by keeping a look out for everyone else because the rest of us will have poor visibility.”

“What do you mean?” Bellamy asked, almost in trepidation.

“The wind blows the sand around and it is a dust cloud, but the sand stings when it hits your face and eyes so it is easier to walk with head down cast to protect the eyes” Roan answered.

“I think we should all be tied together to make sure that no one gets left behind” Clarke offered.

“Yeah, I would feel safer” Harper agreed.

Then Bellamy received the shock of his life when he saw Jasper remove his beloved goggles and pass them to Roan. “If you’re going to be at the front then you should wear these. If the rest of us walk with our head down we can trail behind you if we’re all tied together. You’ll feel the pull on the rope if one of us falls.”

“Are you sure, Jasper? I know how important your goggles are to you” Roan asked.

“But you’re more important and since you need to see where you’re going then it’s better that you have them, Just try not to lose them and give ‘em back when we’re out of the sand” and Jasper’s words hit Bellamy with force.

It was a simple thing for Jasper to do, but the words were heartfelt: Roan was important to Jasper. Roan appreciated Jasper’s gesture and its intent, but did not disrespect Jasper by rejecting the offer. Bellamy was beginning to appreciate that there was a lot more to being a good leader than simply telling people what to do; and Roan was a very good, worthy leader.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, no real punishment, but take heed of what Roan said because he meant it! Anyway, I need to keep Raven and Bellamy with the gang for the time being because I have a story line in mind for them later.
> 
> The next chapter will stay with Roarke'skru but after that we catch up with the Arkers.
> 
> Everyone, please don't forget to stay safe to protect yourself and everyone else.


End file.
